UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


•£• 


NEW    YORK,     HARRER   &  BROTHERS 


THE    LIFE 


OF 


GEORGE   STEPHENSON 


AND  OF  HIS  SON 

ROBERT  STEPHENSON; 

COMPRISING    ALSO 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  INVENTION  AND  INTRODUCTION 
OF  THE  RAILWAY  LOCOMOTIVE. 

BY   SAMUEL    SMILES, 

AUTHOR  OF   "SELF-HELP,"  "THE  HUGUENOTS,"  ETC. 

U,  of  (pT  duplicate 
> 

;Dortrafts  atrt  Numerous  Illustrations. 


NEW    YORK: 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,   PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN     SQUARE. 
1868. 


c 

CD 


PREFACE. 


>•     THE  present  is  a  revised  edition  of  the  Life  of  George  Stephen- 
gson  and  of  his  son  Robert  Stephenson,  to  which  is  prefixed  a  his- 
utory  of  the  Railway  and  the  Locomotive  in  its  earlier  stages,  uni- 
form with  the  early  history  of  the  Steam-engine  given  in  vol.  iv. 
of  "  Lives  of  the  Engineers"  containing  the  memoirs  of  Boulton 
and  Watt.     A  memoir  of  Richard  Trevithick  has  also  been  in- 
cluded in  this  introductory  portion  of  the  book,  which  will  proba- 
g  bly  be  found  more  complete  than  any  notice  which  has  yet  ap- 
__!  peared  of  that  distinguished  mechanical  engineer. 

i      Since  the  appearance  of  this  Life  in  its  original  form  ten  years 
ago,  the  construction  of  Railways  has  continued  to  make  extraor- 
dinary progress.     The  length  of  lines  then  open  in  Europe  was 
estimated  at  about  18,000  miles:  it  is  now  more  than  50,000 
miles.     Although  Great  Britain,  first  in  the  field,  had  then,  after 
v  about  twenty-five  years'  work,  expended  nearly  300  millions  ster- 
J  ling  in  the  construction  of  8300  miles  of  double  railway,  it  has 
£  during  the  last  ten  years  expended  about  200  millions  more  in 
jj£  constructing  5600  additional  miles. 

c  But  the  construction  of  railways  has  proceeded  with  equal  ra- 
3  pidity  on  the  Continent.  France  has  now  9624  miles  at  work ; 
Germany  (including  Austria),  13,392  miles ;  Spain,  3161  miles ; 
Sweden,  1100  miles;  Belgium,  1073  miles;  Switzerland,  795 
miles;  Holland,  617  miles;  besides  railways  in  other  states. 
These  have,  for  the  most  part,  been  constructed  and  opened  dur- 
ing the  last  ten  years,  while  a  considerable  length  is  still  under 
constmction.  Austria  is  actively  engaged  in  carrying  new  lines 


231831 


PREFACE. 


across  the  plains  of  Hungary  to  the  frontier  of  Turkey,  which 
Turkey  is  preparing  to  meet  by  lines  carried  up  the  valley  of  the 
Lower  Danube ;  and  Russia,  with  2800  miles  already  at  work,  is 
occupied  with  extensive  schemes  for  connecting  Petersburg  and 
Moscow  with  her  ports  in  the  Black  Sea  on  the  one  hand,  and 
with  the  frontier  towns  of  her  Asiatic  empire  on  the  other. 

Italy  also  is  employing  her  new-born  liberty  in  vigorously  ex- 
tending railways  throughout  her  dominions.  The  length  of  Ital- 
ian lines  in  operation  in  1866  was  2752  miles,  of  which  not  less 
than  680  were  opened  in  that  year.  Already  has  a  direct  line  of 
communication  been  opened  between  Germany  and  Italy  through 
the  Brenner  Pass,  by  which  it  is  now  possible  to  make  the  entire 
journey  by  railway  (excepting  only  the  short  sea-passage  across 
the  English  Channel)  from  London  to  Brindisi  on  the  southeast- 
em  extremity  of  the  Italian  peninsula ;  and,  in  the  course  of  a 
few  more  years,  a  still  shorter  route  will  be  opened  through  France, 
when  that  most  formidable  of  all  railway  borings,  the  seven-mile 
tunnel  under  Mont  Cenis,  has  been  completed. 

During  the  last  ten  years,  nearly  the  whole  of  the  existing  In- 
dian railways  have  been  made.  When  Edmund  Burke  in  1783 
arraigned  the  British  government  for  their  neglect  of  India  in 
his  speech  on  Mr.  Fox's  Bill,  he  said,  "  England  has  built  no 
bridges,  made  no  high  roads,  cut  no  navigations,  dug  out  no  res- 
ervoirs  Were  we  to  be  driven  out  of  India  this  day,  nothing 

would  remain  to  tell  that  it  had  been  possessed,  during  the  inglo- 
rious period  of  our  dominion,  by  any  thing  better  than  the  orang- 
outang or  the  tiger."  But  that  reproach  no  longer  applies.  Some 
of  the  greatest  bridges  erected  in  modern  times — such  as  those 
over  the  Sone  near  Patna,  and  over  the  Jamna  at  Allahabad — 
have  been  erected  in  connection  with  the  Indian  railways,  of 
which  there  are  already  3637  miles  at  work,  and  above  2000  more 
under  construction.  When  these  lines  have  been  completed,  at 
an  expenditure  of  about  £88,000,000  of  British  capital  guaran- 
teed by  the  British  government,  India  will  be  provided  with  a 


PREFACE. 


magnificent  system  of  internal  communication,  connecting  the 
capitals  of  the  three  Presidencies — uniting  Bombay  with  Madras 
on  the  south,  and  with  Calcutta  on  the  northeast — while  a  great 
main  line,  2200  miles  in  extent,  passing  through  the  northwestern 
provinces,  and  connecting  Calcutta  with  Lucknow,  Delhi,  Lahore, 
Moultan,  and  Kurrachee,  will  unite  the  mouths  of  the  Hooghly 
in  the  Bay  of  Bengal  with  those  of  the  Indus  in  the  Arabian  Sea. 

When  the  first  edition  of  this  work  appeared  in  the  beginning 
of  1857,  the  Canadian  system  of  railways  was  but  in  its  infancy. 
The  Grand  Trunk  was  only  begun,  and  the  Victoria  Bridge — the 
greatest  of  all  railway  structures — was  not  half  erected.  Now, 
that  fine  colony  has  more  than  2200  miles  in  active  operation 
along  the  great  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  connecting  Kiviere  du 
Loup  at  the  mouth  of  that  river,  and  the  harbor  of  Portland  in 
the  State  of  Maine,  via  Montreal  and  Toronto,  with  Sarnia  on 
Lake  Huron,  and  with  Windsor,  opposite  Detroit,  in  the  State  of 
Michigan.  The  Australian  Colonies  also  have  during  the  same 
time  been  actively  engaged  in  providing  themselves  with  rail- 
ways, many  of  which  are  at  work,  and  others  are  in  course  of  for- 
mation. Even  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  has  several  lines  open, 
and  others  making.  France  also  has  constructed  about  400  miles 
in  Algeria,  while  the  Pasha  of  Egypt  is  the  proprietor  of  360 
miles  in  operation  across  the  Egyptian  desert. 

But  in  no  country  has  railway  construction  been  prosecuted 
with  greater  vigor  than  in  the  United  States.  There  the  railway 
furnishes  not  only  the  means  of  intercommunication  between  al- 
ready established  settlements,  as  in  the  Old  World,  but  it  is  re- 
garded as  the  pioneer  of  colonization,  and  as  instrumental  in 
opening  up  new  and  fertile  territories  of  vast  extent  in  the  west 
— the  food-grounds  of  future  nations.  Hence  railway  construc- 
tion in  that  country  was  scarcely  interrupted  even  by  the  great 
Civil  War ;  at  the  commencement  of  which  Mr.  Seward  publicly 
expressed  the  opinion  that  "  physical  bonds,  such  as  highways, 
railroads,  rivers,  and  canals,  are  vastly  more  powerful  for  hold- 


vi  PREFACE. 

ing  civil  communities  together  than  any  mere  covenants,  though 
written  on  parchment  or  engraved  on  iron." 

The  people  of  the  United  States  were  the  first  to  follow  the 
example  of  England,  after  the  practicability  of  steam  locomotion 
had  been  proved  on  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  and  Liverpool 
and  Manchester  Railways.  The  first  sod  of  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Eailway  was  cut  on  the  4th  of  July,  1828,  and  the  line  was 
completed  and  opened  for  traffic  in  the  following  year,  when  it 
was  worked  partly  by  horse-power,  and  partly  by  a  locomotive 
built  at  Baltimore,  which  is  still  preserved  in  the  Company's 
workshops.  In  1830  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk  Eailway  was  be- 
gun, while  other  lines  were  .under  construction  in  Pennsylvania, 
Massachusetts,  and  New  Jersey ;  and  in  the  course  of  ten  years, 
1843  miles  were  finished  and  in  operation.  In  ten  more  years, 
8827  miles  were  at  work ;  at  the  end  of  1864,  not  less  than  35,000 
miles,  mostly  single  tracks ;  while  about  15,000  miles  more  were 
under  construction.  One  of  the  most  extensive  trunk-lines  still 
unfinishecL  is  the  Great  Pacific  Eailroad,  connecting  the  lines  in 
the  valleys  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri  with  the  city  of 
San  Francisco  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  by  which,  when  com- 
pleted, it  will  be  possible  to  make  the  journey  from  England  to 
Hong  Kong,  via  New  York,  in  little  more  than  a  month. 

The  results  of  the  working  of  railways  have  been  in  many  re- 
spects different  from  those  anticipated  by  their  projectors.  One 
of  the  most  unexpected  has  been  the  growth  of  an  immense  pas- 
senger-traffic. The  Stockton  and  Darlington  line  was  projected 
as  a  coal  line  only,  and  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  as  a  mer- 
chandise line.  Passengers  were  not  taken  into  account  as  a 
source  of  revenue ;  for,  at  the  time  of  their  projection,  it  was  not 
believed  that  people  would  trust  themselves  to  be  drawn  upon 
a  railway  by  an  "  explosive  machine,"  as  the  locomotive  was  de- 
scribed to  be.  Indeed,  a  writer  of  eminence  declared  that  he 
would  as  soon  think  of  being  fired  off  on  a  ricochet  rocket  as 


PREFACE.  vii 

travel  on  a  railway  at  twice  the  speed  of  the  old  stage-coaches. 
So  great  was  the  alarm  which  existed  as  to  the  locomotive,  that 
the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Committee  pledged  themselves  in 
their  second  prospectus,  issued  in  1825, "  not  to  require  any  clause 
empowering  its  use ;"  and  as  late  as  1829,  the  Newcastle  and 
Carlisle  Act  was  conceded  on  the  express  condition  that  it  should 
not  be  worked  by  locomotives,  but  by  horses  only, 

Nevertheless,  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Company  obtained 
powers  to  make  and  work  their  railway  without  any  such  restric- 
tion; and  when  the  line  was  made  and  opened,  a  locomotive 
passenger-train  was  ordered  to  be  run  upon  it  by  way  of  experi- 
ment. Greatly  to  the  surprise  of  the  directors,  more  passengers 
presented  themselves  as  travelers  by  the  train  than  could  conve- 
niently be  carried. 

The  first  arrangements  as  to  passenger-traffic  were  of  a  very 
primitive  character,  being  mainly  copied  from  the  old  stage-coach 
system.  The  passengers  were  "booked"  at  the  railway  office, 
and  their  names  were  entered  in  a  way-bill  which  was  given  to 
the  guard  when  the  train  started.  Though  the  usual  stage-coach 
bugleman  could  not  conveniently  accompany  the  passengers,  the 
trains  were  at  first  played  out  of  the  terminal  stations  by  a  lively 
tune  performed  by  a  trumpeter  at  the  end  of  the  platform,  and 
this  continued  to  be  done  at  the  Manchester  Station  until  a  com- 
paratively recent  date. 

But  the  number  of  passengers  carried  by  the  Liverpool  and 
Manchester  line  was  so  unexpectedly  great,  that  it  was  very  soon 
found  necessary  to  remodel  the  entire  system.  Tickets  were  in- 
troduced, by  which  a  great  saving  of  time  was  effected.  More 
roomy  and  commodious  carriages  were  provided,  the  original 
first-class  compartments  being  seated  for  four  passengers  only. 
Every  thing  was  found  to  have  been  in  the  first  instance  made 
too  light  and  too  slight.  The  prize  "Rocket,"  which  weighed 
only  4^-  tons  when  loaded  with  its  coke  and  water,  was  found 
quite  unsuited  for  drawing  the  increasingly  heavy  loads  of  pas- 


viii  PREFACE. 

sengers.  There  was  also  this  essential  difference  between  the  old 
stage-coach  and  the  new  railway  train,  that,  whereas  the  former 
was  "  full"  with  six  inside  and  ten  outside,  the  latter  must  be 
able  to  accommodate  whatever  number  of  passengers  came  to  be 
carried.  Hence  heavier  and  more  powerful  engines,  and  larger 
and  more  substantial  carriages,  were  from  time  to  time  added  to 
the  carrying  stock  of  the  railway. 

The  speed  of  the  trains  was  also  increased.  The  first  locomo- 
tives used  in  hauling  coal-trains  ran  at  from  four  to  six  miles  an 
hour.  On  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  line  the  speed  was  in- 
creased to  about  ten  miles  an  hour ;  and  on  the  Liverpool  and 
Manchester  line  the  first  passenger-trains  were  run  at  the  aver- 
age speed  of  seventeen  miles  an  hour,  which  at  that  time  was 
considered  very  fast.  But  this  was  not  enough.  When  the  Lon- 
don and  Birmingham  line  was  opened,  the  mail-trains  were  run 
at  twenty-three  miles  an  hour ;  and  gradually  the  speed  went  up, 
until  now  the  fast  trains  are  run  at  from  fifty  to  sixty  miles  an 
hour — the  pistons  in  the  cylinders,  at  sixty  miles,  traveling  at  the 
inconceivable  rapidity  of  800  feet  per  minute ! 

To  bear  the  load  of  heavy  engines  run  at  high  speeds,  a  much 
stronger  and  heavier  road  was  found  necessary ;  and  shortly  aft- 
er the  opening  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line,  it  was  en- 
tirely relaid  with  stronger  materials.  Now  that  express  passen- 
ger-engines are  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  tons  each,  the  weight  of 
the  rails  has  been  increased  from  35  Ibs.  to  75  Ibs.  or  86  Ibs.  to 
the  yard.  Stone  blocks  have  given  place  to  wooden  sleepers ; 
rails  with  loose  ends  resting  on  the  chairs,  to  rails  with  their 
ends  firmly  "  fished"  together ;  and  in  many  places,  where  the 
traffic  is  unusually  heavy,  iron  rails  have  been  replaced  by  those 
of  steel. 

And  now  see  the  enormous  magnitude  to  which  railway  pas- 
senger-traffic has  grown.  In  the  year  1866,  274,293,668  passen- 
gers were  carried  by  day  tickets  in  Great  Britain  alone.  But 
this  was  not  all ;  for  in  that  year  110,227  periodical  tickets  were 


PREFACE. 


issued  by  the  different  railways ;  and  assuming  half  of  them  to 
be  annual,  one  fourth  half-yearly,  and  the  remainder  quarterly 
tickets,  and  that  their  holders  made  only  five  journeys  each  way 
weekly,  this  would  give  an  additional  number  of  39,405,600  jour- 
neys, or  a  total  of  313,699,268  passengers  carried  in  Great  Brit- 
ain in  one  year. 

It  is  difficult  to  grasp  the  idea  of  the  enormous  number  of  per- 
sons represented  by  these  figures.  The  mind  is  merely  bewilder- 
ed by  them,  and  can  form  no  adequate  notion  of  their  magni- 
tude. To  reckon  them  singly  would  occupy  twenty  years,  count- 
ing at  the  rate  of  one  a  second  for  twelve  hours  every  day.  Or 
take  another  illustration.  Supposing  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  in  Great  Britain  to  make  ten  journeys  by  rail  yearly,  the 
number  would  fall  short  of  the  passengers  carried  in  1866. 

Mr.  Porter,  in  his  "  Progress  of  the  Nation,"  estimated  that 
thirty  millions  of  passengers,  or  about  eighty -two  thousand  a 
day,  traveled  by  coaches  in  Great  Britain  in  1834,  an  average 
distance  of  twelve  miles  each,  at  an  average  cost  of  5s.  a  passen- 
ger, or  at  the  rate  of  5e?.  a  mile ;  whereas  above  313  millions  are 
now  carried  by  railway  an  average  distance  of  8|  miles  each,  at 
an  average  cost  of  Is.  \\d.  per  passenger,  or  about  three  half- 
pence per  mile,  in  considerably  less  than  half  the  time. 

But,  besides  the  above  number  of  passengers,  one  hundred  and 
twenty -four  million  tons  of  minerals  and  merchandise  were 
carried  by  railway  in  the  United  Kingdon  in  1866,  and  fifteen 
millions  of  cattle,  besides  mails,  parcels,  and  other  traffic.  The 
distance  run  by  passenger  and  goods  trains  in  the  year  was 
142,807,853  miles,  to  accomplish  which  it  is  estimated  that  four 
miles  of  railway  on  an  average  must  be  covered  by  running 
trains  during  every  second  all  the  year  round. 

To  perform  this  service,  there  were,  in  1866,  8125  locomotives 
at  work  in  the  United  Kingdom,  consuming  about  three  million 
tons  of  coal  and  coke,  and  flashing  into  the  air  every  minute 
some  thirty  tons  of  water  in  the  form  of  steam  in  a  high  state 


x  PREFACE. 

of  elasticity.  There  were  also  19,228  passenger-carriages,  V276 
vans  and  breaks  attached  to  passenger-trains,  and  242,947  trucks, 
wagons,  and  other  vehicles  appropriated  to  merchandise.  Buck- 
led together,  buffer  to  buffer,  the  locomotives  and  tenders  would 
extend  for  a  length  of  about  54  miles,  or  more  than  the  distance 
from  London  to  Brighton ;  while  the  carrying  vehicles,  joined 
together,  would  form  two  trains  occupying  a  double  line  of  rail- 
way extending  from  London  to  beyond  Inverness. 

A  notable  feature  in  the  growth  of  railway  traffic  of  late  years 
has  been  the  increase  in  the  number  of  third-class  passengers, 
compared  with  first  and  second  class.  Sixteen  years  since,  the 
third-class  passengers  constituted  only  about  one  third ;  ten  years 
later  they  were  about  one  half ;  whereas  now  they  form  nearly 
two  thirds  of  the  whole  number  carried.  Thus  George  Stephen- 
son's  prediction  "  that  the  time  would  come  when  it  would  be 
cheaper  for  a  working  man  to  make  a  journey  by  railway  than 
to  walk  on  foot"  is  already  realized. 

The  degree  of  safety  with  which  this  great  traffic  has  been 
conducted  is  not  the  least  remarkable  of  its  features.  Of  course, 
so  long  as  railways  are  worked  by  men,  they  will  be  liable  to  the 
imperfections  belonging  to  all  things  human.  Though  their  ma- 
chinery may  be  perfect,  and  their  organization  as  complete  as 
skill  and  forethought  can  make  it,  workmen  will  at  times  be  for- 
getful and  listless,  and  a  moment's  carelessness  may  lead  to  the 
most  disastrous  results.  Yet,  taking  all  circumstances  into  ac- 
count, the  wonder  is  that  traveling  by  railway  at  high  speeds 
should  have  been  rendered  comparatively  so  safe. 

To  be  struck  by  lightning  is  one  of  the  rarest  df  all  causes  of 
death,  yet  more  persons  were  killed  by  lightning  in  Great  Britain, 
in  1866,  than  were  killed  on  railways  from  causes  beyond  their 
own  control ;  the  number  in  the  former  case  having  been  nine- 
teen, and  in  the  latter  fifteen,  or  one  in  every  twenty  millions  of 
passengers  carried.  Most  persons  would  consider  the  probability* 
of  their  dying  by  hanging  to  be  extremely  remote ;  yet,  accord- 


PREFACE. 


ing  to  the  Registrar  General's  returns  for  1867,  it  is  thirty  times 
greater  than  that  of  being  killed  by  railway  accident.  Taking 
the  number  of  persons  who  traveled  in  Great  Britain  in  1866  at 
313,699,268,  of  whom  fifteen  were  accidentally  killed,  it  would 
appear  that,  even  supposing  a  person  to  have  a  permanent  exist- 
ence, and  to  make  a  journey  by  railway  daily,  the  probability  of 
his  being  killed  in  an  accident  would  occur  on  an  average  once 
in  above  50,000  years. 

The  remarkable  safety  with  which  railway  traffic  is  on  the 
whole  conducted,  is  due  to  constant  watchfulness  and  highly-ap- 
plied skill.  The  men  who  work,  the  railways  are  for  the  most 
part  the  picked  men  of  the  country,  and  every  railway  station 
may  be  regarded  as  a  practical  school  of  industry,  attention,  and 
punctuality.  Where  railways  fail  in  these  respects,  it  will  usu- 
ally be  found  that  it  is  because  the  men  are  personally  defective, 
or  because  better  men  are  not  to  be  had.  It  must  also  be  added 
that  the  onerous  and  responsible  duties  which  railway  workmen 
are  called  upon  to  perform  require  a  degree  of  consideration  on 
the  part  of  the  public  which  is  not  very  often  extended  to  them. 

Few  are  aware  of  the  complicated  means  and  agencies  that  are 
in  constant  operation  on  railways  day  and  night  to  insure  the 
safety  of  the  passengers  to  their  journeys'  end.  The  road  is  un- 
der a  system  of  continuous  inspection,  under  gangs  of  men — 
about  twelve  to  every  five  miles,  under  a  foreman  or  "ganger" — 
whose  duty  it  is  to  see  that  the  rails  and  chairs  are  sound,  all 
their  fastenings  complete,  and  the  line  clear  of  obstructions. 

Then,  at  all  the  junctions,  sidings,  and  crossings,  pointsmen  are 
stationed,  with  definite  instructions  as  to  the  duties  to  be  per- 
formed by  them.  At  these  places  signals  are  provided,  worked 
from  the  station  platforms,  or  from  special  signal-boxes,  for  the 
purpose  of  protecting  the  stopping  or  passing  trains.  When  the 
first  railways  were  opened  the  signals  were  of  a  very  simple  kind. 
The  station-men  gave  them  with  their  arms  stretched  out  in  dif- 
ferent positions ;  then  flags  of  different  colors  were  used ;  next 


xji  PREFACE. 

fixed  signals,  with  arms  or  discs,  or  of  rectangular  or  triangular 
shape.  These  were  followed  by  a  complete  system  of  semaphore 
signals,  near  and  distant,  protecting  all  junctions,  sidings,  and 
crossings. 

When  government  inspectors  were  first  appointed  by  the  Board 
of  Trade  to  examine  and  report  upon  the  working  of  railways, 
they  were  alarmed  by  the  number  of  trains  following  each  other 
at  some  stations  in  what  then  seemed  to  be  a  very  rapid  succes- 
sion. A  passage  from  a  Keport  written  in  1840  by  Sir  Frederick 
Smith,  as  to  the  traffic  at  "  Taylor's  Junction,"  on  the  York  and 
North  Midland  Railway,  contrasts  curiously  with  the  railway  lif e 
and  activity  of  the  present  day :  "  Here,"  wrote  the  alarmed  in- 
spector, "  the  passenger  trains  from  York,  as  well  as  Leeds  and 
Selby,  meet  four  times  a  day.  No  less  than  23  passenger-trains 
stop  at  or  pass  this  station  in  the  24  hours — an  amount  of  traffic 
requiring  not  only  the  most  perfect  arrangements  on  the  part 
of  the  management,  but  the  utmost  vigilance  and  energy  in  the 
servants  of  the  Company  employed  at  this  place."  Contrast  this 
with  the  state  of  things  now.  On  the  Metropolitan  Line,  667 
trains  pass  a  given  point  in  one  direction  or  the  other  during  the 
eighteen  hours  of  the  working  day,  or  an  average  of  36  trains  an 
hour.  At  the  Cannon-street  Station  of  the  Southeastern  Rail- 
way, 527  trains  pass  in  and  out  daily,  many  of  them  crossing 
each  others'  tracks  under  the  protection  of  the  station  signals. 
Forty-five  trains  run  in  and  out  between  9  and  10  A.M.,  and  an 
equal  number  between  4  and  5  P.M.  Again,  at  the  Clapham 
Junction,  near  London,  about  700  trains  pass  or  stop  daily ;  and 
though  to  the  casual  observer  the  succession  of  trains  coming  and 
going,  running  and  stopping,  coupling  and  shunting,  appears  a 
scene  of  inextricable  confusion  and  danger,  the  whole  is  clearly 
intelligible  to  the  signal-men  in  their  boxes,  who  work  the  trains 
in  and  out  with  extraordinary  precision  and  regularity. 

The  inside  of  a  signal-box  reminds  one  of  a  piano-forte  on  a 
large  scale,  the  lever-handles  corresponding  with  the  keys  of  the 


PREFACE. 


instrument;  and,  to  an  uninstructed  person,  to  work  the  one 
would  be  as  difficult  as  to  play  a  tune  on  the  other.  The  signal- 
box  outside  Cannon-street  Station  contains  67  lever-handles,  by 
means  of  which  the  signal-men  are  enabled  at  the  same  moment 
to  communicate  with  the  drivers  of  all  the  engines  on  the  line 
within  an  area  of  800  yards.  They  direct  by  signs,  which  are 
quite  as  intelligible  as  words,  the  drivers  of  the  trains  starting 
from  inside  the  station,  as  well  as  those  of  the  trains  arriving 
from  outside.  By  pulling  a  lever-handle,  a  distant  signal,  per- 
haps out  of  sight,  is  set  some  hundred  yards  off,  which  the  ap- 
proaching driver — reading  it  quickly  as  he  comes  along — at  once 
interprets,  and  stops  or  advances,  as  the  signal  may  direct. 

The  precision  and  accuracy  of  the  signal-machinery  employed 
at  important  stations  and  junctions  have  of  late  years  been  much 
improved  by  an  ingenious  contrivance,  by  means  of  which  the 
setting  of  the  signal  prepares  the  road  for  the  coming  train. 
When  the  signal  is  set  at  "  Danger,"  the  points  are  at  the  same 
time  worked,  and  the  road  is  "  locked"  against  it ;  and  when  at 
"Safety /'the  road  is  open — the  signal  and  the  points  exactly 
corresponding. 

The  Electric  Telegraph  has  also  been  found  a  valuable  auxil- 
iary in  insuring  the  safe  working  of  large  railway  traffics. 
Though  the  locomotive  may  run  at  sixty  miles  an  hour,  electric- 
ity, when  at  its  fastest,  travels  at  the  rate  of  288,000  miles  a  sec- 
ond, and  is  therefore  always  able  to  herald  the  coming  train. 
The  electric  telegraph  may,  indeed,  be  regarded  as  the  nervous 
system  of  the  railway.  By  its  means  the  whole  line  is  kept 
throbbing  with  intelligence.  The  method  of  working  electric 
signals  varies  on  different  lines ;  but  the  usual  practice  is  to  di- 
vide a  line  into  so  many  lengths,  each  protected  by  its  signal-sta- 
tions, the  fundamental  law  of  telegraph  working  being  that  two 
engines  are  not  to  be  allowed  to  run  on  the  same  line  between 
two  signal-stations  at  the  same  time.  When  a  tram  passes  one 
of  such  stations,  it  is  immediately  signaled  on — usually  by  elec- 


PREFACE. 


trie  signal-bells — to  the  station  in  advance,  and  that  interval  of 
railway  is  "  blocked"  until  the  signal  has  been  received  from  the 
station  in  advance  that  the  train  has  passed  it.  Thus  an  interval 
of  space  is  always  secured  between  trains  following  each  other, 
which  are  thereby  alike  protected  before  and  behind.  And  thus, 
when  a  train  starts  on  a  journey  of  it  may  be  hundreds  of  miles, 
it  is  signaled  on  from  station  to  station,  and  "lives  along  the 
line,"  until  at  length  it  reaches  its  destination,  and  the  last  signal 
of  "  train  in"  is  given.  By  this  means  an  immense  number  of 
trains  can  be  worked  with  regularity  and  safety.  On  the  South- 
eastern Railway,  where  the  system  has  been  brought  to  a  state  of 
high  efficiency,  it  is  no  unusual  thing  during  Easter  week  to  send 
570,000  passengers  through  the  London  Bridge  Station  alone ; 
and  on  some  days  as  many  as  1200  trains  a  day. 

While  such  are  the  expedients  adopted  to  insure  safety,  others 
equally  ingenious  are  adopted  to  insure  speed.  In  the  case  of 
express  and  mail  trains,  the  frequent  stopping  of  the  engines  to 
take  in  a  fresh  supply  of  water  occasions  a  considerable  loss  of 
time  on  a  long  journey,  each  stoppage  for  this  purpose  occupy- 
ing from  ten  to  fifteen  minutes.  To  avoid  such  stoppages  larger 
tenders  have  been  provided,  capable  of  carrying  as  much  as  2000 
gallons  of  water  each.  But  as  a  considerable  time  is  occupied  in 
filling  these,  a  plan  has  been  contrived  by  Mr.  Eamsbottom,  the 
locomotive  engineer  of  the  London  and  Northwestern  Railway, 
by  which  the  engines  are  made  to  feed  themselves  while  running 
at  full  speed !  The  plan  is  as  follows :  An  open  trough,  about 
440  feet  long,  is  laid  longitudinally  between  the  rails.  Into  this 
trough,  which  is  filled  with  water,  a  dip-pipe,  or  scoop  attached 
to  the  bottom  of  the  tender  of  the  running  train,  is  lowered,  and, 
at  a  speed  of  50  miles  an  hour,  as  much  as  1070  gallons  of  water 
are  scooped  up  in  the  course  of  a  few  minutes.  The  first  of  such 
troughs  was  laid  down  between  Chester  and  Holyhead,  to  enable 
the  Express  Mail  to  run  the  distance  of  84f  miles  in  two  hours 
and  five  minutes  without  stopping ;  and  similar  troughs  have 


PREFACE. 


since  been  laid  down  at  Bushey,  near  London ;  at  Castlethorpe, 
near  Wolverton ;  and  at  Parkside,  near  Liverpool.  At  these  four 
troughs  about  130,000  gallons  of  water  are  scooped  up  daily. 

Wherever  railways  have  been  made,  new  towns  have  sprung 
up,  and  old  towns  and  cities  been  quickened  into  new  life. 
When  the  first  English  lines  were  projected,  great  were  the 
prophecies  of  disaster  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  districts  through 
which  they  were  proposed  to  be  forced.  Such  fears  have  long 
since  been  dispelled  in  this  country.  The  same  prejudices  exist- 
ed in  France.  When  the  railway  from  Paris  to  Marseilles  was 
projected  to  pass  through  Lyons,  a  local  prophet  predicted  that 
if  the  line  were  made  the  city  would  be  ruined — "  Ville  traversee, 
ville perdue;"  while  a  local  priest  denounced  the  locomotive  and 
the  electric  telegraph  as  heralding  the  reign  of  Antichrist.  But 
such  nonsense  is  no  longer  uttered.  Now  it  is  the  city  without 
the  railway  that  is  regarded  as  the  "  city  lost ;"  for  it  is  in  a 
measure  shut  out  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  left  outside  the 
pale  of  civilization. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  of  all  the  illustrations  that  could  be 
offered  of  the  extent  to  which  railways  facilitate  the  locomotion, 
the  industry,  and  the  subsistence  of  the  population  of  large 
towns  and  cities,  is  afforded  by  the  working  of  the  railway  sys- 
tem in  connection  with  the  capital  of  Great  Britain. 

The  extension  of  railways  to  London  has  been  of  comparative- 
ly recent  date,  the  whole  of  the  lines  connecting  it  with  the  prov- 
inces and  terminating  at  its  outskirts  having  been  opened  during 
the  last  thirty  years,  while  the  lines  inside  London  have  for  the 
most  part  been  opened  within  the  last  ten  years. 

The  first  London  line  was  the  Greenwich  Railway,  part  of 
which  was  opened  for  traffic  to  Deptford  in  February,  1836. 
The  working  of  this  railway  was  first  exhibited  as  a  show,  and 
the  usual  attractions  were  employed  to  make  it "  draw."  A  band 
of  musicians  in  the  garb  of  the  Beef -eaters  was  stationed  at  the 


xvj  PREFACE. 

London  end,  and  another  band  at  Deptford.  For  cheapness' 
sake,  the  Deptford  band  was  shortly  superseded  by  a  large  bar- 
rel-organ, which  played  in  the  passengers ;  but  when  the  traffic 
became  established,  the  barrel-organ,  as  well  as  the  Beef -eater 
band  at  the  London  end,  were  both  discontinued.  The  whole 
length  of  the  line  was  lit  up  at  night  by  a  row  of  lamps  on  either 
side  like  a  street,  as  if  to  enable  the  locomotives  or  the  passen- 
gers to  see  their  way  in  the  dark ;  but  these  lamps  also  were 
eventually  discontinued  as  unnecessary. 

As  a  show,  the  Greenwich  Railway  proved  tolerably  success- 
ful. During  the  first  eleven  months  it  carried  456,750  passen- 
gers, or  an  average  of  about  1300  a  day.  But  the  railway  hav- 
ing been  found  more  convenient  to  the  public  than  either  the 
river  boats  or  the  omnibuses,  the  number  of  passengers  rapidly 
increased.  When  the  Croydon,  Brighton,  and  Southeastern  Rail- 
ways began  to  pour  their  streams  of  traffic  over  the  Greenwich 
Viaduct,  its  accommodation  was  found  much  too  limited,  and  it 
was  widened  from  time  to  time,  until  now  nine  lines  of  railway 
are  laid  side  by  side,  over  which  more  than  twenty  millions  of 
passengers  are  carried  yearly,  or  an  average  of  about  60,000  a 
day  all  the  year  round. 

Since  the  partial  opening  of  the  Greenwich  Railway  in  1836, 
a  large  extent  of  railways  has  been  constructed  in  and  about  the 
metropolis,  and  convenient  stations  have  been  established  almost 
in  the  heart  of  the  city.  Sixteen  of  these  stations  are  within  a 
circle  of  half  a  mile  radius  from  the  Mansion  House,  and  above 
three  hundred  stations  are  in  actual  use  or  in  course  of  construc- 
tion within  about  five  miles  of  Charing  Cross.  The  most  impor- 
tant lines  recently  opened  for  the  accommodation  of  the  London 
local  traffic  have  been  the  London,  Chatham  and  Dover  Metro- 
politan Extensions  (1861),  the  Metropolitan  (1863),  the  North 
London  Extension  to  Liverpool  Street  (1865),  the  Charing  Cross 
and  Cannon  -  street  Extensions  of  the  Southeastern  Railway 
(1864-6),  and  the  South  London  Extension  of  the  Brighton 


PREFACE.  Xvii 

Railway  (1866).  Of  these  railways,  the  London,  Chatham  and 
Dover  carried  5,228,418  passengers  in  1867 ;  the  Metropolitan, 
23,405,282 ;  the  North  London,  17,535,502 ;  the  Southeastern, 
17,473,934;  and  the  Brighton,  12,686,417.  The  total  number 
carried  into  and  out  of  London,  as  well  as  from  station  to  station 
in  London,  in  the  same  year,  was  104  millions  of  passengers. 

To  accommodate  this  vast  traffic,  not  fewer  than  3600  local 
trains  are  run  in  and  out  daily,  besides  340  trains  which  depart 
to  and  arrive  from  distant  places,  north,  south,  east,  and  west. 
In  the  morning  hours,  between  8  30  and  10  30,  when  business 
men  are  proceeding  inward  to  their  offices  and  counting-houses, 
and  in  the  afternoon  between  four  and  six,  when  they  are  return- 
ing outward  to  their  homes,  as  many  as  two  thousand  stoppages 
are  made  in  the  hour,  within  the  metropolitan  district,  for  the 
purpose  of  taking  up  and  setting  down  passengers,  while  about 
two  miles  of  railway  are  covered  by  the  running  trains. 

One  of  the  remarkable  effects  of  railways  has  been  to  extend 
the  residential  area  of  all  large  towns  and  cities.  This  is  espe- 
cially notable  in'  the  case  of  London.  Before  the  introduction 
of  railways,  the  residential  area  of  the  metropolis  was  limited  by 
the  time  occupied  by  business  men  in  making  the  journey  out- 
ward and  inward  daily ;  and  it  was  for  the  most  part  bounded 
by  Bow  on  the  east,  by  Hampstead  and  Highgate  on  the  north, 
by  Paddington  and  Kensington  on  the  west,  and  by  Clapham 
and  Brixton  on  the  south.  But  now  that  stations  have  been  es- 
tablished near  the  centre  of  the  city,  and  places  so  distant  as 
Waltham,  Barnet,  Watford,  Hanwell,  Richmond,  Epsom,  Croydon, 
Reigate,  and  Erith  can  be  more  quickly  reached  by  rail  than  the 
old  suburban  quarters  were  by  omnibus,  the  metropolis  has  be- 
come extended  in  all  directions  along  its  railway  lines,  and  the 
population  of  London,  instead  of  living  in  the  city  or  its  imme- 
diate vicinity  as  formerly,  have  come  to  occupy  a  residential  area 
of  not  less  than  six  hundred  square  miles ! 

The  number  of  new  towns  which  have  consequently  sprung 
B 


PREFACE. 


into  existence  near  London  within  the  last  twenty  years  has  been 
very  great;  towns  numbering  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand  in- 
habitants, which  before  were  but  villages,  if,  indeed,  they  existed. 
This  has  especially  been  the  case  along  the  lines  south  of  the 
Thames,  principally  in  consequence  of  the  termini  of  those  lines 
being  more  conveniently  situated  for  city  men  of  business.  Hence 
the  rapid  growth  of  the  suburban  towns  up  and  down  the  river, 
from  Richmond  and  Staines  on  the  west,  to  Erith  and  Gravesend 
on  the  east,  and  the  hives  of  population  which  have  settled  on  the 
high  grounds  south  of  the  Thames,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Nor- 
wood and  the  Crystal  Palace,  rapidly  spreading  over  the  Surrey 
Downs,  from  Wimbledon  to  Guildford,  and  from  Bromley  to 
Croydon,  Epsom,  and  Dorking.  And  now  that  the  towns  on  the 
south  and  southeast  coast  can  be  reached  by  city  men  in  little 
more  time  than  it  takes  to  travel  to  Clapham  or  Bayswater  by 
omnibus,  such  places  have  become,  as  it  were,  parts  of  the  great 
metropolis,  and  Brighton  and  Hastings  are  but  marine  suburbs  of 
London. 

The  improved  state  of  the  communications  of  the  city  with  the 
country  has  had  a  marked  effect  upon  its  population.  While  the 
action  of  the  railways  has  been  to  add  largely  to  the  number  of 
persons  living  in  London,  it  has  also  been  accompanied  by  their 
dispersion  over  a  much  larger  area.  Thus  the  population  of  the 
central  parts  of  London  is  constantly  decreasing,  whereas  that  of 
the  suburban  districts  is  as  constantly  increasing.  The  popula- 
tion of  the  city  fell  off  more  than  IG^OOO  between  1851  and  1861 ; 
and  during  the  same  period,  that  of  Holborn,  the  Strand,  St.  Mar- 
tin's-in-the-Fields,  St.  James's,  Westminster,  East  and  West  Lon- 
don, showed  a  considerable  decrease.  But,  as  regards  the  whole 
mass  of  the  metropolitan  population,  the  increase  has  been  enor- 
mous, especially  since  the  introduction  of  railways.  Thus,  start- 
ing from  1801,  when  the  population  of  London  was  958,863,  we 
find  it  increasing  in  each  decennial  period  at  the  rate  of  between 
two  and  three  Jiundred  thousand,  until  the  year  1841,  when  it 


PREFACE.  xix 

amounted  to  1,948,369.  Railways  had  by  that  time  reached 
London,  after  which  its  population  increased  at  nearly  double  the 
former  ratio.  In  the  ten  years  ending  1851,  the  increase  was 
413,867 ;  and  in  the  ten  years  ending  1861, 441,753 ;  until  now, 
to  quote  the  words  of  the  Registrar  General  in  his  last  annual 
Report, "  the  population  within  the  registration  limits  is  by  esti- 
mate 2,993,513 ;  but  beyond  this  central  mass  there  is  a  ring  of 
life  growing  rapidly,  and  extending  along  railway  lines  over  a 
circle  of  fifteen  miles  from  Charing  Cross.  The  population 
within  that  circle,  patrolled  by  the  metropolitan  police,  is  about 
3,463,771 !" 

The  aggregation  of  so  vast  a  number  of  persons  within  so  com- 
paratively limited  an  area  —  the  immense  quantity  of  food  re- 
quired for  their  daily  sustenance,  as  well  as  of  fuel,  clothing,  and 
other  necessaries — would  be  attended  with  no  small  inconven- 
ience and  danger  but  for  the  facilities  again  provided  by  the 
railways.  The  provisioning  of  a  garrison  of  even  four  thousand 
men  is  considered  a  formidable  affair;  how  much  more  so  the 
provisioning  of  nearly  four  millions  of  people ! 

The  whole  mystery  is  explained  by  the  admirable  organization 
of  the  railway  service,  and  the  regularity  and  dispatch  with  which 
it  is  conducted.  We  are  enabled  by  the  courtesy  of  the  general 
managers  of  the  London  railways  to  bring  together  the  following 
brief  summary  of  facts  relating  to  the  food  supply  of  London, 
which  will  probably  be  regarded  by  most  readers  as  of  a  very  re- 
markable character. 

Generally  speaking,  the  railways  to  the  south  of  the  Thames 
contribute  comparatively  little  toward  the  feeding  of  London. 
They  are,  for  the  most  part,  passenger  and  residential  lines,  trav- 
ersing a  limited  and  not  very  fertile  district  bounded  by  the  sea- 
coast,  and,  excepting  in  fruit  and  vegetables,  milk  and  hops,  they 
probably  carry  more  food  from  London  than  they  bring  to  it. 
The  principal  supplies  of  grain,  flour,  potatoes,  and  fish  are 
brought  by  railway  from  the  eastern  counties  of  England  and 


xx  PREFACE. 

Scotland;  and  of  cattle  and  sheep,  beef  and  mutton,  from  the 
grazing  counties  of  the  west  and  northwest  of  Britain,  as  far  as 
from  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  which,  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  railways,  have  become  part  of  the  great  grazing-grounds 
of  the  metropolis. 

Take  first "  the  staff  of  life"— bread  and  its  constituents.  Of 
wheat,  not  less  than  222,080  quarters  were  brought  into  London 
by  railway  in  1867,  besides  what  was  brought  by  sea ;  of  oats, 
151,757  quarters ;  of  barley,  70,282  quarters ;  of  beans  and  peas, 
51,448  quarters.  Of  the  wheat  and  barley,  by  far  the  largest 
proportion  was  brought  by  the  Great  Eastern  Kailway,  which  de- 
livered in  London  last  year  155,000  quarters  of  wheat  and  45,500 
quarters  of  barley,  besides  600,429  quarters  more  in  the  form  of 
malt.  The  largest  quantity  of  oats  was  brought  by  the  Great 
Northern  Kailway,  principally  from  the  north  of  England  and 
the  east  of  Scotland — the  quantity  delivered  by  that  company  in 
1867  having  been  97,500  quarters,  besides  24,664  quarters  of 
wheat,  5560  quarters  of  barley,  and  103,917  quarters  of  malt. 
Again,  of  1,250,566  sacks  of  flour  and  meal  delivered  in  London 
last  year,  the  Great  Eastern  brought  654,000  sacks,  the  Great 
Northern  232,022  sacks,  and  the  Great  "Western  136,312  sacks ; 
the  principal  contribution  of  the  London  and  Northwestern  Rail- 
way toward  the  London  bread -stores  being  100,760  boxes  of 
American  flour,  besides  24,300  sacks  of  English.  The  total 
quantity  of  malt  delivered  at  the  London  railway  stations  in 
1867  was  thirteen  hundred  thousand  sacks. 

Next,  as  to  flesh  meat.  Last  year  not  fewer  than  172,300  head 
of  cattle  were  brought  into  London  by  railway,  though  this  was 
considerably  less  than  the  number  carried  before  the  cattle 
plague,  the  Great  Eastern  Railway  alone  having  carried  44,672 
less  than  in  1864.  But  this  loss  has  since  been  more  than  made 
up  by  the  increased  quantities  of  fresh  beef,  mutton,  and  other 
kinds  of  meat  imported  in  lieu  of  the  live  animals.  The  princi- 
pal supplies  of  rattle  are  brought,  as  we  have  said,  by  the  west- 


PREFACE.  xxi 

ern,  northern,  and  eastern  lines :  by  the  Great  Western  from  the 
western  counties  and  Ireland ;  by  the  London  and  Northwestern, 
the  Midland,  and  the  Great  Northern,  from  the  northern  counties 
and  from  Scotland ;  and  by  the  Great  Eastern  from  the  eastern 
counties,  and  from  the  ports  of  Harwich  and  Lowestoft. 

Last  year  also,  1,147,609  sheep  were  brought  to  London  by  rail- 
way, of  which  the  Great  Eastern  delivered  not  less  than  265,371 
head.  The  London  and  Northwestern  and  Great  Northern  be- 
tween them  brought  390,000  head  from  the  northern  English 
counties,  with  a  large  proportion  from  the  Scotch  Highlands; 
while  the  Great  Western  brought  up  130,000  head  from  the 
Welsh  mountains,  and  from  the  rich  grazing  districts  of  Wilts, 
Gloucester,  Somerset,  and  Devon.  Another  important  freight  of 
the  London  and  Northwestern  Railway  consists  of  pigs,  of  which 
they  delivered  54,700  in  London  last  year,  principally  Irish; 
while  the  Great  Eastern  brought  up  27,500  of  the  same  animal, 
partly  foreign. 

While  the  cattle  plague  has  had  the  effect  of  greatly  reducing 
the  number  of  live-stock  brought  into  London  yearly,  it  has  given 
a  considerable  impetus  to  the  Fresh  Meat  traffic.  Thus,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  above  large  numbers  of  cattle  and  sheep  delivered 
in  London  last  year,  the  railways  brought  76,175  tons  of  meat, 
which — taking  the  meat  of  an  average  beast  at  800  Ibs.,  and  of 
an  average  sheep  at  64  Ibs. — would  be  equivalent  to  about  112,000 
more  cattle,  and  1,267,500  more  sheep.  The  Great  Northern 
brought  the  largest  quantity ;  next,  the  London  and  Northwest- 
ern— these  two  companies  having  brought  up  between  them,  from 
distances  as  remote  as  Aberdeen  and  Inverness,  about  42,000  tons 
of  fresh  meat  in  1867,  at  an  average  freight  of  about  \d.  a  Ib. 

Again,  as  regards  Fish,  of  which  six  tenths  of  the  whole  quan- 
tity consumed  in  London  is  now  brought  by  rail.  The  Great 
Eastern  and  the  Great  Northern  are  by  far  the  largest  importers 
of  this  article,  and  justify  their  claim  to  be  regarded  as  the  great 
food  lines  of  London.  Of  the  61,358  tons  of  fish  brought  by  rail- 


xxii  PREFACE. 

way  in  1867,  not  less  than  24,500  tons  were  delivered  by  the  for- 
mer, and  22,000  tons,  brought  from  much  longer  distances,  by  the 
latter  company.  The  London  and  Northwestern  brought  about 
6000  tons  last  year,  the  principal  part  of  which  was  salmon  from 
Scotland  and  Ireland.  The  Great  "Western  also  brought  about 
4000  tons,  partly  salmon,  but  the  greater  part  mackerel  from  the 
southwest  coast.  During  the  mackerel  season,  as  much  as  a  hun- 
dred tons  at  a  time  are  brought  into  the  Paddington  Station  by 
express  fish-train  from  Cornwall. 

The  Great  Eastern  and  Great  Northern  Companies  are  also  the 
principal  carriers  of  turkeys,  geese,  fowls,  and  game,  the  quantity 
delivered  in  London  last  year  by  the  former  company  having  been 
5042  tons.  In  Christmas  week  no  fewer  than  30,000  turkeys  and 
geese  were  delivered  at  the  Bishopsgate  Station,  besides  about 
300  tons  of  poultry,  10,000  barrels  of  beer,  and  immense  quanti- 
ties of  fish,  oysters,  and  other  kinds  of  food.  As  much  as  1600 
tons  of  poultry  and  game  were  brought  last  year  by  the  South- 
western Kailway ;  600  tons  by  the  Great  Northern  Eailway ;  and 
130  tons  of  turkeys,  geese,  and  fowls  by  the  London,  Chatham 
and  Dover  line,  principally  from  France. 

Of  miscellaneous  articles,  the  Great  Northern  and  Midland 
each  brought  about  3000  tons  of  cheese,  the  Southwestern  2600 
tons,  and  the  London  and  Northwestern  10,034  cheeses  in  num- 
ber ;  while  the  Southwestern  and  Brighton  lines  brought  a  splen- 
did contribution  to  the  London  breakfast-table  in  the  shape  of 
11,259  tons  of  French  eggs ;  these  two  companies  delivering  be- 
tween them  an  average  of  more  than  three  millions  of  eggs  a 
week  all  the  year  round !  The  same  companies  last  year  deliv- 
ered in  London  14,819  tons  of  butter,  for  the  most  part  the  pro- 
duce of  the  farms  of  Normandy,  the  greater  cleanness  and  neat- 
ness with  which  the  Normandy  butter  is  prepared  for  market 
rendering  it  a  favorite  both  with  dealers  and  consumers  of  late 
years  compared  with  Irish  butter.  The  London,  Chatham  and 
Dover  Company  also  brought  from  Calais  96  tons  of  eggs. 


PREFACE.  xxiii 


Next,  as  to  the  potatoes,  vegetables,  and  fruit  brought  by  rail. 
Forty  years  since,  the  inhabitants  of  London  relied  for  their  sup- 
ply of  vegetables  on  the  garden-grounds  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood of  the  metropolis,  and  the  consequence  was  that  they 
were  both  very  dear  and  limited  in  quantity.  But  railways, 
while  they  have  extended  the  grazing-grounds  of  London  as  far 
as  the  Highlands,  have  at  the  same  time  extended  the  garden- 
grounds  of  London  into  all  the  adjoining  counties — into  East 
Kent,  Essex,  Suffolk,  and  Norfolk,  the  vale  of  Gloucester,  and 
even  as  far  as  Penzance  in  Cornwall.  The  London,  Chatham 
and  Dover,  one  of  the  youngest  of  our  main  lines,  brought  up 
from  East  Kent  last  year  5279  tons  of  potatoes,  1046  tons  of  veg- 
etables, and  5386  tons  of  fruit,  besides  542  tons  of  vegetables 
from  France.  The  Southeastern  brought  25,163  tons  of  the 
same  produce.  The  Great  Eastern,  brought  from  the  eastern 
counties  21,315  tons  of  potatoes,  and  3596  tons  of  vegetables  and 
fruit;  while  the  Great  Northern  brought  no  less  than  78,505 
tons  of  potatoes — a  large  part  of  them  from  the  east  of  Scotland 
— and  3768  tons  of  vegetables  and  fruit.  About  6000  tons  of 
early  potatoes  were  last  year  brought  from  Cornwall,  with  about 
5000  tons  of  brocoli,  and  the  quantities  are  steadily  increasing. 
"  Truly  London  hath  a  large  belly,"  said  old  Fuller  two  hundred 
years  since.  But  how  much  more  capacious  is  it  now ! 

One  of  the  most  striking  illustrations  of  the  utility  of  railways 
in  contributing  to  the  supply  of  wholesome  articles  of  food  to 
the  population  of  large  cities  is  to  be  found  in  the  rapid  growth 
of  the  traffic  in  Milk.  Headers  of  newspapers  may  remember 
the  descriptions  published  some  years  since  of  the  horrid  dens  in 
which  London  cows  are  penned,  and  of  the  odious  compound 
sold  by  the  name  of  milk,  of  which  the  least  deleterious  ingre- 
dient in  it  was  supplied  by  the  "  cow  with  the  iron  tail."  That 
state  of  affairs  is  now  completely  changed.  What  with  the 
greatly  improved  state  of  the  London  dairies  and  the  better 
quality  of  the  milk  supplied  by  them,  together  with  the  large 


xxiv 


PREFACE. 


quantities  brought  by  railway  from  a  range  of  a  hundred  miles 
and  more  all  round  London,  even  the  poorest  classes  in  the  me- 
tropolis are  now  enabled  to  obtain  as  wholesome  a  supply  of  the 
article  as  the  inhabitants  of  most  country  towns. 

The  milk  traffic  has  in  some  cases  been  rapid,  almost  sudden, 
in  its  growth.  Though  the  Great  Western  is  at  present  the 
greatest  of  the  milk  lines,  it  brought  very  little  into  London  prior 
to  the  year  1865.  In  the  month  of  August  in  that  year  it 
brought  23,474:  gallons,  and  in  the  month  of  October  following 
the  quantity  had  increased  to  103,214  gallons.  Last  year  the 
total  quantity  delivered  in  London  by  this  single  railway  was 
1,514,836  gallons,  or  an  average  of  30,000  gallons  a  week.  The 
largest  proportion  of  this  milk  was  brought  from  beyond  Swin- 
don  in  Wiltshire,  about  100  miles  from  London ;  but  consider- 
able quantities  were  also  brought  from  the  vale  of  Gloucester 
and  from  Somerset.  The  London  and  Southwestern  also  is  a 
great  milk-carrying  line,  having  brought  as  much  as  1,480,272 
gallons  to  London  last  year,  or  an  average  of  28,000  gallons  a 
week.  The  Great  Eastern  brought  nearly  the  same  quantity, 
1,322,429  gallons,  or  an  average  of  about  25,400  gallons  a 
week.  The  London  and  Northwestern  ranks  next,  having 
brought  643,432  gallons  in  186Y;  then  the  Great  Northern, 
455,916  gallons;  the  Southeastern,  435,668  gallons;  and  the 
Brighton,  419,254  gallons.  The  total  quantity  of  milk  deliver- 
ed in  London  by  railway  last  year  was  6,309,446  gallons,  or 
above  120,000  gallons  a  week.  Yet  this  traffic,  large  though  it 
may  appear,  is  as  yet  but  in  its  infancy,  and  in  the  course  of  a 
few  more  years  it  will  be  found  very  largely  increased,  according 
as  facilities  are  provided  for  its  accommodation  and  transit. 

These  great  streams  of  food,  which  we  have  thus  so  summarily 
described,  flow  into  London  so  continuously  and  uninterruptedly, 
that  comparatively  few  persons  are  aware  of  the  magnitude  and 
importance  of  the  process  thus  daily  going  forward.  Though 
gathered  from  an  immense  extent  of  country — embracing  En- 


PREFACE.  XXV 

gland,  Scotland,  "Wales,  and  Ireland — the  influx  is  so  uuintermit- 
ted  that  it  is  relied  upon  with  as  much  certainty  as  if  it  only 
came  from  the  counties  immediately  adjoining  London.  The 
express  meat-train  from  Aberdeen  arrives  in  town  as  punctually 
as  the  Clapham  omnibus,  and  the  express  milk-train  from  Ayles- 
bury  is  as  regular  in  its  delivery  as  the  penny  post.  Indeed, 
London  now  depends  so  much  upon  railways  for  its  subsistence, 
that  it  may  be  said  to  be  fed  by  them  from  day  to  day,  having 
never  more  than  a  few  days'  food  in  stock.  And  the  supply  is 
so  regular  and  continuous,  that  the  possibility  of  its  being  inter- 
rupted never  for  a  moment  occurs  to  any  one.  Yet,  in  these 
days  of  strikes  among  workmen,  such  a  contingency  is  quite 
within  the  limits  of  possibility.  Another  contingency,  arising  in 
a  state  of  war,  is  probably  still  more  remote.  But,  were  it  pos- 
sible for  a  war  to  occur  between  England  and  a  combination  of 
foreign  powers  possessed  of  stronger  iron-clads  than  ours,  and 
that  they  were  able  to  ram  our  ships  back  into  port  and  land  an 
enemy  of  overpowering  force  on  the  Essex  coast,  it  would  be  suf- 
ficient for  them  to  occupy  or  cut  the  railways  leading  from  the 
north,  to  starve  London  into  submission  in  less  than  a  fortnight. 
Besides  supplying  London  with  food,  railways  have  also  been 
instrumental  in  insuring  the  more  regular  and  economical  supply 
of  fuel — a  matter  of  almost  as  vital  importance  to  the  population 
in  a  climate  such  as  that  of  England.  So  long  as  the  market 
was  supplied  with  coal  brought  by  sea  in  sailing  ships,  fuel  in 
winter  often  rose  to  a  famine  price,  especially  during  long-con- 
tinued easterly  winds.  But,  now  that  railways  are  in  full  work, 
the  price  is  almost  as  Steady  in  winter  as  in  summer,  and  the  sup- 
ply is  more  regular  at  all  seasons.  The  following  statement  of 
the  coals  brought  into  London  by  sea  and  by  railway,  at  decennial 
periods  since  1827,  as  supplied  by  Mr.  J.  K.  Scott,  Kegistrar  of 
the  Coal  Exchange,  shows  the  effect  of  railways  in  increasing  the 
supply  of  fuel,  at  the  same  time  that  they  have  lowered  the  price 
to  the  consumer : 


XXVI 


PREFACE. 


Years. 

Sea-borne  CoaL 

Coals  brought  by  Kail- 
way. 

Price  per  Ton. 

1827 
1847 
1857 
1867 

Tons. 
1,882,321 
3,280,420 
3,133,459 
3,016,416 

Tons. 
nil 
19,336 
1,206,775 
3,295,652 

8.    d. 
28     6 
20  10 
18     8 
20     8 

Thus  the  price  of  coal  has  been  reduced  7s.  10<£  a  ton  since  1827, 
while  the  quantity  delivered  has  been  enormously  increased,  the 
total  saving  on  the  quantity  consumed  in  the  metropolis  in  1867, 
compared  with  1827,  being  equal  to  £2,388,000. 

But  the  carriage  of  food  and  fuel  to  London  forms  but  a  small 
part  of  the  merchandise  traffic  carried  by  railway.  Above 
600,000  tons  of  goods  of  various  kinds  yearly  pass  through  one 
station  only,  that  of  the  London  and  Northwestern  Company,  at 
Camden  Town ;  and  sometimes  as  many  as  20,000  parcels  daily. 
Every  other  metropolitan  station  is  similarly  alive  with  traffic  in- 
ward and  outward,  London  having  since  the  introduction  of  rail- 
ways become  more  than  ever  a  great  distributive  centre,  to  which 
merchandise  of  all  kinds  converges,  and  from  which  it  is  distrib- 
uted to  all  parts  of  the  country.  Mr.  Bazley,  M.P.,  stated  at  a 
late  public  meeting  at  Manchester  that  it  would  probably  require 
ten  millions  of  horses  to  convey  by  road  the  merchandise  traffic 
which  is  now  annually  carried  by  railway. 

Railways  have  also  proved  of  great  value  in  connection  with 
the  Cheap  Postage  system.  By  their  means  it  has  become  possi- 
ble to  carry  letters,  newspapers,  books,  and  post  parcels  in  any 
quantity,  expeditiously  and  cheaply.  The  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester line  was  no  sooner  opened  in  1830  than  the  Post-office 
authorities  recognized  its  utility,  and  used  it  for  carrying  the 
mails  between  the  two  towns.  When  the  London  and  Birming- 
ham line  was  opened  eight  years  later,  mail  trains  were  at  once 
put  on,  the  directors  undertaking  to  perform  the  distance  of  113 
miles  within  5  hours  by  day  and  5£  hours  by  night.  As  addi- 
tional lines  were  opened,  the  old  four-horse  mail-coaches  were 
gradually  discontinued,  until,  in  1858,  the  last  of  them,  the  "  Der- 


PREFACE.  xxvii 


by  Dilly,"  which  ran  between  Manchester  and  Derby,  was  taken 
off  on  the  opening  of  the  Midland  line  to  Rowsley. 

The  increased  accommodation  provided  by  railways  was  f oimd 
of  essential  importance,  more  particularly  after  the  adoption  of 
the  Cheap  Postage  system ;  and  that  such  accommodation  was 
needed  will  be  obvious  from  the  extraordinary  increase  which 
has  taken  place  in  the  number  of  letters  and  packets  sent  by  post. 
Thus,  in  1839,  the  number  of  chargeable  letters  carried  was  only 
76  millions,  and  of  newspapers  44J  millions ;  whereas,  in  1865, 
the  number  of  letters  had  increased  to  720  millions,  and  in  1867 
to  775  millions,  or  more  than  tenfold,  while  the  number  of  news- 
papers, books,  samples,  and  patterns  (a  new  branch  of  postal  bus- 
iness begun  in  1864)  had  increased,  in  1865,  to  98£  millions. 

To  accommodate  this  largely-increasing  traffic,  the  bulk  of 
which  is  carried  by  railway,  the  mileage  run  by  mail  trains  in  the 
United  Kingdom  has  increased  from  25,000  miles  a  day  in  1854 
(the  first  year  of  which  we  have  any  return  of  the  mileage  run)  to 
60,000  miles  a  day  in  1867,  or  an  increase  of  240  per  cent.  The 
Post-office  expenditure  on  railway  service  has  also  increased,  but 
not  in  like  proportion,  having  been  £364,000  in  the  former  year, 
and  £559,575  in  the  latter,  or  an  increase  of  154  per  cent.  The 
revenue,  gross  and  net,  has  increased  still  more  rapidly.  In  1841, 
the  first  complete  year  of  the  Cheap  Postage  system,  the  gross 
revenue  was  £1,359,466,  and  the  net  revenue  £500,789 ;  in  1854, 
the  gross  revenue  was  £2,574,407,  and  the  net  revenue  £1,173,723 ; 
and  in  1867,  the  gross  revenue  was  £4,548,129,  and  the  net  reve- 
nue £2,127,125,  being  an  increase  of  420  per  cent,  compared  with 
1841,  and  of  180  per  cent,  compared  with  1854.  How  much  of 
this  net  increase  might  fairly  be  credited  to  the  Eailway  Postal 
service  we  shall  not  pretend  to  say,  but  assuredly  the  proportion 
must  be  very  considerable. 

One  of  the  great  advantages  of  railways  in  connection  with 
the  postal  service  is  the  greatly  increased  frequency  of  communi- 
cation which  they  provide  between  all  the  large  towns.  Thus 


PREFACE. 


Liverpool  has  now  six  deliveries  of  Manchester  letters  daily,  while 
every  large  town  in  the  kingdom  has  two  or  more  deliveries  of 
London  letters  daily.  In  1863,  393  towns  had  two  mails  daily 
from  London  ;  50  had  three  mails  daily  ;  7  had  four  mails  a  day 
from  London,  and  15  had  four  mails  a  day  to  London  ;  while  3 
towns  had  five  mails  a  day  from  London,  and  6  had  five  mails  a 
day  to  London. 

Another  feature  of  the  railway  mail  train,  as  of  the  passenger 
train,  is  its  capacity  to  carry  any  quantity  of  letters  and  post  par- 
cels that  may  require  to  be  carried.  In  1838,  the  aggregate 
weight  of  all  the  evening  mails  dispatched  from  London  by  twen- 
ty-eight mail-coaches  was  4  tons  6  cwt.,  or  an  average  of  about 
3£  cwt.  each,  though  the  maximum  contract  weight  was  15  cwt. 
The  mails  now  are  necessarily  much  heavier,  the  number  of  let- 
ters and  packets  having,  as  we  have  seen,  increased  more  than 
tenfold  since  1839.  But  it  is  not  the  ordinary  so  much  as  the 
extraordinary  mails  that  are  of  considerable  weight,  more  partic- 
ularly the  American,  the  Continental,  and  the  Australian  mails. 
It  is  no  unusual  thing,  we  are  informed,  for  the  last-mentioned 
mail  to  weigh  as  much  as  40  tons.  How  many  of  the  old  mail- 
coaches  it  would  take  to  carry  such  a  mail  the  79  miles'  journey 
to  Southampton,  with  a  relay  of  four  horses  every  five  or  seven 
miles,  is  a  problem  for  the  arithmetician  to  solve.  But  even  sup- 
posing each  coach  to  be  loaded  to  the  maximum  weight  of  15 
cwt.  per  coach,  it  would  require  about  sixty  vehicles  and  about 
1700  horses  to  carry  the  40  tons,  besides  the  coachmen  and  guards. 

A  few  words,  in  conclusion,  as  to  the  number  of  men  employed 
in  working  and  maintaining  railways.  According  to  Mr.  Mills,* 
166,047  men  and  officers  were  employed  in  the  working  of  13,289 
miles  open  in  the  United  Kingdom  in  1865,  besides  53,923  em- 
ployed on  lines  then  under  construction.  The  most  numerous 

*  "The  Railway  Service,  its  Exigencies,  Provisions,  and  Requirements."  By  W. 
F.  Mills.  London,  1867. 


PREFACE.  xxix 

body  of  workmen  is  that  of  the  laborers  (81,284)  employed  in  the 
maintenance  of  the  permanent  way.  Being  mostly  picked  men 
from  the  laboring  class  of  the  adjoining  districts,  they  are  paid 
considerably  higher  wages,  and  hence  one  of  the  direct  effects 
of  railways  on  the  laboring  population  (besides  affording  them 
greater  facilities  for  locomotion)  has  been  to  raise  the  standard 
of  wages  of  ordinary  labor  at  least  2s.  a  week  in  all  the  districts 
into  which  they  have  penetrated.  The  workmen  next  in  number 
is  that  of  the  artificers  (40,167)  employed  in  constructing  and  re- 
pairing the  rolling-stock;  the  porters  (25,381),  the  plate-layers 
(12,901),  guards  and  brakesmen  (5799),  firemen  (5266),  and  en- 
gine-drivers (5171).  But,  besides  the  employes  directly  engaged 
in  the  working  and  maintenance  of  railways,  large  numbers  of 
workmen  are  also  occupied  in  the  manufacture  of  locomotives 
and  rolling-stock,  and  in  providing  the  requisite  materials  for  the 
permanent  way.  Thus  the  consumption  of  rails  alone  averages 
nearly  400,000  tons  a  year  in  the  United  Kingdom  alone,  while 
the  replacing  of  decayed  sleepers  requires  about  10,000  acres  of 
forest  to  be  cut  down  annually  and  sawn  into  sleepers.  Taking 
the  various  railway  workmen  into  account,  with  their  families,  it 
will  be  found  that  they  represent  a  total  of  about  three  quarters 
of  a  million  persons,  or  about  one  in  fifty  of  our  population,  who 
are  dependent  on  railways  for  their  subsistence. 

While  the  practical  working  of  railways  has,  on  the  whole, 
been  so  satisfactory,  the  case  has  been  very  different  as  regards 
their  direction  and  financial  management.  The  men  employed 
in  the  working  of  railways  make  it  their  business  to  learn  it,  and, 
being  responsible,  they  are  under  the  necessity  of  taking  pains  to 
do  it  well ;  whereas  the  men  who  govern  and  direct  them  are 
practically  irresponsible,  and  may  possess  no  qualification  what- 
ever for  the  office  excepting  only  the  holding  of  so  much  stock. 
The  consequence  has  been  much  blundering  on  the  part  of  these 
amateurs,  and  great  loss  on  the  part  of  the  public.  Indeed,  what 


xxx  PREFACE. 

between  the  confused,  contradictory,  and  often  unjust  legislation 
of  Parliament  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  carelessness  or  incompe- 
tency  of  directors  on  the  other,  many  once  flourishing  concerns 
have  been  thrown  into  a  state  of  utter  confusion  and  muddle, 
until  railway  government  has  become  a  by-word  of  reproach. 

And  this  state  of  things  will  probably  continue  until  the  fatal 
defect  of  government  by  Boards — an  extremely  limited  responsi- 
bility, or  no  responsibility  at  all — has  been  rectified  by  the  ap- 
pointment, as  in  France,  of  executives  consisting  of  a  few  men  of 
special  ability  and  trained  administrative  skill,  personally  respon- 
sible to  their  constituents  for  the  due  performance  of  their  re- 
spective functions.  But  the  discussion  of  this  subject  would  re- 
quire a  treatise,  whereas  we  are  now  but  writing  a  preface. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  financial  mismanagement  of  rail- 
ways, there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  great  benefits  conferred  by 
them  on  the  public  wherever  made.  Even  those  railways  which 
have  exhibited  the  most  "  frightful  examples"  of  scheming  and 
financing,  so  soon  as  placed  in  the  hands  of  practical  men  to 
work,  have  been  found  to  prove  of  unquestionable  public  conven- 
ience and  utility.  And  notwithstanding  all  the  faults  and  im- 
perfections that  are  alleged  against  railways  have  been  admitted, 
we  think  that  they  must,  nevertheless,  be  recognized  as  by  far  the 
most  valuable  means  of  communication  between  men  and  nations 
that  has  yet  been  given  to  the  world. 

The  author's  object  in  publishing  this  book  in  its  original  form, 
some  ten  years  since,  was  to  describe,  in  connection  with  the 
"  Life  of  George  Stephenson,"  the  origin  and  progress  of  the  rail- 
way system,  and  to  show  by  what  moral  and  material  agencies 
its  founders  were  enabled  to  carry  their  ideas  into  effect,  and  to 
work  out  results  which  even  then  were  of  a  remarkable  charac- 
ter, though  they  have  since,  as  above  described,  become  so  much 
more  extraordinary.  The  favor  with  which  successive  editions 
of  the  book  have  been  received  has  justified  the  author  in  his  an- 


PREFACE.  xxxi 


ticipation  that  such  a  narrative  would  prove  of  general,  if  not  of 
permanent  interest,  and  he  has  taken  pains,  in  preparing  for  the 
press  the  present,  and  probably  final  edition,  to  render  it,  by  care- 
ful amendment  and  revision,  more  worthy  of  the  public  accept- 
ance. 

London,  May,  1868. 


PREFACE 

TO  THE  EIGHTH  EDITION,  1864. 


THE  following  is  a  revised  and  improved  edition  of  "  The  Life 
of  George  Stephenson,"  with  which  is  incorporated  a  Memoir  of 
his  son  Robert,  late  President  of  the  Institute  of  Civil  Engineers. 
Since  its  original  appearance  in  1857,  much  additional  informa- 
tion has  been  communicated  to  the  author  relative  to  the  early 
history  of  Eailways  and  the  men  principally  concerned  in  estab- 
lishing them,  of  which  he  has  availed  himself  in  the  present 
edition. 

In  preparing  the  original  work  for  publication,  the  author  en- 
joyed the  advantage  of  the  cordial  co-operation  and  assistance  of 
Robert  Stephenson,  on  whom  he  mainly  relied  for  information 
as  to  the  various  stages  through  which  the  Locomotive  passed, 
and  especially  as  to  his  father's  share  in  its  improvement. 
Through  Mr.  Stephenson's  instrumentality  also,  the  author  was 
enabled  to  obtain  much  valuable  information  from  gentlemen 
who  had  been  intimately  connected  with  his  father  and  himself 
in  their  early  undertakings — among  others,  from  Mr.  Edward 
Pease,  of  Darlington  ;  Mr.  Dixon,  C.E. ;  Mr.  Sopwith,  F.R.S. ; 
Mr.  Charles  Parker ;  and  Sir  Joshua  Walmsley. 

Most  of  the  facts  relating  to  the  early  period  of  George  Ste- 
phenson's career  were  collected  from  colliers,  brakesmen,  engine- 
men,  and  others,  who  had  known  him  intimately,  or  been  fellow- 
workmen  with  him,  and  were  proud  to  communicate  what  they 
remembered  of  his  early  life.  The  information  obtained  from 
these  old  men — most  of  them  illiterate,  and  some  broken  down 

C 


PREFACE. 


by  hard  work — though  valuable  in  many  respects,  was  confused, 
and  sometimes  contradictory ;  but,  to  insure  as  much  accuracy 
an<jl  consistency  of  narrative  as  possible,  the  author  submitted  the 
MS.  to  Mr.  Stephenson,  and  had  the  benefit  of  his  revision  of  it 
previous  to  publication. 

Mr.  Stephenson  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  improvement  of 
the  "Life"  of  his  father,  and  continued  to  furnish  corrections 
and  additions  for  insertion  in  the  successive  editions  of  the  book 
which  were  called  for  by  the  public.  After  the  first  two  editions 
had  appeared,  he  induced  several  gentlemen,  well  qualified  to 
supply  additional  authentic  information,  to  communicate  their 
recollections  of  his  father,  among  whom  may  be  mentioned  Mr. 
T.  L.  Gooch,  C.E. ;  Mr.Vaughan,  of  Snibston ;  Mr.  F.  Swanwick, 
C.E. ;  and  Mr.  Binns,  of  Clayross,  who  had  officiated  as  private 
secretaries  to  George  Stephenson  at  different  periods  of  his  life, 
and  afterward  held  responsible  offices  either  under  him  or  in  con- 
junction with  him. 

The  author  states  these  facts  to  show  that  the  information  con- 
tained in  this  book  is  of  an  authentic  character,  and  has  been  ob- 
tained from  the  most  trustworthy  sources.  Whether  he  has  used 
it  to  the  best  purpose  or  not,  he  leaves  others  to  judge.  This 
much,  however,  he  may  himself  say — that  he  has  endeavored,  to 
the  best  of  his  ability,  to  set  forth  the  facts  communicated  to  him 
in  a  simple,  faithful,  and  straightforward  manner ;  and,  even  if 
he  has  not  wholly  succeeded  in  doing  this,  he  has,  at  all  events, 
been  the  means  of  collecting  information  on  a  subject  originally 
unattractive  to  professional  literary  men,  and  thereby  rendered 
its  farther  prosecution  comparatively  easy  to  those  who  may  feel 
called  upon  to  undertake  it. 

The  author  does  not  pretend  to  have  steered  clear  of  errors  in 
treating  a  subject  so  extensive,  and,  before  he  undertook  the  la- 
bor, comparatively  uninvestigated ;  but,  wherever  errors  have 
been  pointed  out,  he  has  taken  the  earliest  opportunity  of  cor- 
recting them.  With  respect  to  objections  taken  to  the  book  be- 


PREFACE.  XXXV 


cause  of  the  undue  share  of  merit  alleged  to  be  therein  attrib- 
uted to  the  Stephensons  in  respect  of  the  Railway  and  the  Loco- 
motive, there  will  necessarily  be  various  opinions.  There  is 
scarcely  an  invention  or  improvement  in  mechanics  but  has  been 
the  subject  of  dispute,  and  it  was  to  be  expected  that  those  who 
had  counter  claims  would  put  them  forward  in  the  present  case ; 
nor  has  the  author  any  reason  to  complain  of  the  manner  in 
which  this  has  been  done. 

While  George  Stephenson  is  the  principal  subject  in  the  fol- 
lowing book,  his  son  Robert  also  forms  an  essential  part  of  it. 
Father  and  son  were  so  intimately  associated  in  the  early  period 
of  their  career,  that  it  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  describe 
the  one  apart  from  the  other.  The  life  and  achievements  of  the 
son  were  in  a  great  measure  the  complement  of  the  life  and 
acliievements  of  the  father.  The  care,  also,  with  which  the  elder 
Stephenson,  while  occupying  the  position  of  an  obscure  engine- 
wriglit,  devoted  himself  to  his  son's  education,  and  the  gratitude 
with  which  the  latter  repaid  the  affectionate  self-denial  of  liis 
father,  furnish  some  of  the  most  interesting  illustrations  of  the 
personal  character  of  both. 

These  views  were  early  adopted  by  the  author  and  carried  out 
by  him  in  the  preparation  of  the  original  work,  with  the  concur- 
rence of  Robert  Stephenson,  who  supplied  the  necessary  particu- 
lars relating  to  himself.  Such  portions  of  these  were  accordingly 
embodied  in  the  narrative  as  could  with  propriety  be  published 
during  his  life-time,  and  the  remaining  portions  are  now  added 
with  the  object  of  rendering  more  complete  the  record  of  the 
son's  life,  as  well  as  the  early  history  of  the  Railway  System. 


CONTENTS. 


P  A  E  T  I. 

CHAPTER  I. 

SCHEMERS  AND  PROJECTORS. 

Man's  Desire  for  rapid  Transit. — Origin  of  the  Railway. — Early  Coal  Wagon-ways 
in  the  North  of  England.— Early  Attempts  to  apply  the  Power  of  Wind  to  drive 
Carriages. — Sailing-coaches. — Sir  Isaac  Newton's  Proposal  to  employ  Steam-pow- 
er.— Dr.  Darwin's  Speculations  on  the  Subject. — Mr.  Edgeworth's  Speculations. — 
Dr.  Darwin's  Prophecy Page  47 

CHAPTER  II. 
EARLY  LOCOMOTIVE  MODELS. 

Watt  and  Robison's  proposed  Steam-carriage. — Memoir  of  Joseph  Cugnot  and  his 
Road-locomotive. — Francis  Moore. — James  Watt's  Specification  of  a  Locomotive- 
engine. — William  Murdoch's  Model. — William  Symington's  model  Steam-carriage. 
— Oliver  Evans's  model  Locomotive 60 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  CORNISH  LOCOMOTIVE — MEMOIR  OF  TREVITHICK. 

Early  Welsh  Railway  Acts. — Wandsworth,  Croydon,  and  Merstham  Railway. — 
Boyhood  of  Trevithick. — Becomes  an  Engineer. — His  Career. — Constructs  a 
Steam-carriage. — Its  Exhibition  in  London. — Constructs  a  Tram-engine. — Its 
Trial  on  the  Merthyr  Railroad. — Trevithick's  Improvements  in  the  Steam-engine. 
— Attempts  to  construct  a  Tunnel  under  the  Thames. — His  numerous  Inventions 
and  Patents. — Engines  ordered  of  him  for  Peru. — Trevithick  a  Mining  Engineer 
in  South  America. — Is  ruined  by  the  Peruvian  Revolution. — His  return  Home. — 
His  last  Patents.— Death  and  Characteristics ...  73 


P  A  E  T  I  I. 

CHAPTER  I. 

^-  THE  NEWCASTLE  COAL-FIELD — GEORGE  STEPHENSON'S  EARLY  YEARS. 
Newcastle  in  ancient  Times. — The  Coal-trade. — Modern  Newcastle. — The  Colliery 
Workmen. — The  Pumping-engines. — The  Pitmen. — The  Keelmen. — Wylam  Col- 
liery and  Village. — George  Stephenson's  Birthplace. — The  Stephenson  Family. — 
Old  Robert  Stephenson. — George's  Boyhood. — Employed  as  a  Herd-boy. — Makes 
Clay  Engines.— Employed  as  Corf-bitter.— Drives  the  Gin-horse.— Appointed  as- 
sistant Fireman 97 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  II. 

^    NEWBCRN  AKD  CALLERTON — GEORGE  STEPHENSON  LEARNS  TO  BE  AN  ENGINE- 
MAN. 

Stephenson's  •  Life  at  Newburn. — Appointed  Engine-man. — Duties  of  Plugman. — 
Study  of  the  Steam-engine. — Experiments  in  Bird-hatching.— Learns  to  Read. — 
His  Schoolmasters. — Progress  in  Arithmetic. — His  Dog. — Learns  to  Brake. — 
Duties  of  Brakesman. — Begins  Shoe-mending. — Fight  with  a  Pitman... Page  111 

CHAPTER  in. 

ENGINE-MAN  AT  WILLINGTON  QUAY  AND  KILLINGWORTH. 

Sobriety  and  Studiousness. — Removal  to  Willington  Quay,  and  Marriage. — Attempts 
a  Perpetual-motion  Machine. — William  Fairbairn,  C.E.,  and  George  Stephenson. 
— Ballast-heaving. — Cottage  Chimney  takes  fire. — Birth  of  his  son  Robert. — Re- 
moval to  West  Moor,  Killingworth. — Death  of  his  Wife. — Appointed  Engine-man 
at  Montrose. — Keturn  to  Killingworth. — Appointed  Brakesman  at  West  Moor. — 
Is  drawn  for  the  Militia. — Thinks  of  Emigrating. — Takes  a  contract  for  Brakeing. 
— Improves  the  Winding-engine. — Cures  a  Pumping-engine. — Is  appointed  En- 
gine-wright  of  the  Colliery 121 

CHAPTER  IV. 

~*>       THE  STEPHENSONS  AT  KILLINGWORTH — EDUCATION  AND  SELF-EDUCATION. 
Efforts  at  Self-improvement. — John  Wigham. — Studies  in  Natural  Philosophy. — 
Education  of  Robert  Stephenson. — Sent  to  Bruce's  School,  Newcastle. — His  boy- 
ish Tricks. — Stephenson's  Cottage,  West  Moor. — Mechanical  Contrivances. — The 
Sun-dial  at  West  Moor. — Stephenson's  various  Duties  as  Colliery  Engineer ...  137 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  LOCOMOTIVE  ENGINE— GEORGE  STEPHENSON  BEGINS  ITS  IMPROVEMENT. 
Slow  Progress  heretofore  made  in  the  Improvement  of  the  Locomotive. — The  Wy- 
lam  Wagon-way* — Mr.  Blackett  orders  a  Locomotive. — Mr.  Blenkinsop's  Leeds 
Locomotive. — Mr.  Blackett's  second  Engine  a  Failure. — The  improved  Wylam 
Engine. — George  Stephenson's  Study  of  the  Subject. — His  first  Locomotive  con- 
structed.— His  Improvement  of  the  Engine,  as  described  by  his  Son. — Invention 
of  the  Steam-blast 152 

CHAPTER  VI. 

INVENTION  OF  THE  "  GEORDY"  SAFETY-LAMP. 

Frequency  of  Colliery  Explosions. — Accidents  in  the  Killingworth  Pit. — Stephen- 
son's  heroic  Conduct. — Proposes  to  invent  a  Safety-lamp. — His  first  Lamp  and 
its  Trial. — Cottage  Experiments  with  Coal-gas. — His  second  and  third  Lamps. — 
Scene  at  the  Newcastle  Institute. — The  Stephenson  and  Davy  Controversy. — The 
Davy  and  Stephenson  Testimonials.  — Merits  of  the  ' '  Geordy"  Lamp 1 75 

CHAPTER  VII. 

GEOKGE  STEPHENSON'S  FARTHER  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  LOCOMOTIVE — ROBERT 
STEPHENSON  AS  VIEWER'S  APPRENTICE  AND  STUDENT. 

Stephenson's  Improvements  in  the  Mine-machinery. — Farther  Improvements  in  the 
Locomotive  and  in  the  Road. — Experiments  on  Friction. — Early  Neglect  of  the 
Locomotive. — Stephenson  again  meditates  emigrating  to  America. — Employed  as 


CONTENTS.  xxxix 


Engineer  of  the  Hetton  Railway. — Robert  Stephenson  put  Apprentice  to  a  Coal- 
viewer. — His  Father  sends  him  to  Edinburg  University. — His  Studies  there. — 
Geological  Tour  in  the  Highlands Page  198 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

GEORGE  STEPHENSON  ENGINEER  OF  THE  STOCKTON  AND  DARLINGTON  RAILWAY. 

Failure  of  the  first  public  Railways  near  London. — Want  of  improved  communica- 
tions in  the  Bishop  Auckland  Coal-district. — Various  Projects  devised. — A  Rail- 
way projected  at  Darlington. — Edward  Pease. — George  Stephenson  employed  as 
Engineer. — Mr.  Pease's  Visit  to  Killingworth. — A  Locomotive  Factory  begun  at 
Newcastle. — The  Stockton  and  Darlington  Line  constructed. — The  public  Open- 
ing.—The  Coal-traffic.— The  first  Passenger-traffic  by  Railway.— The  Town  of 
Middlesborough-on-Tees  created  by  the  Railway 21(> 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  LIVERPOOL  AND  MANCHESTER  RAILWAY  PROJECTED. 

Insufficiency  of  the  Communication  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester. — A  Tram- 
road  projected  by  Mr.  Sandars. — The  Line  surveyed  by  William  James. — The 
Survey  a  failure. — George  Stephenson  appointed  Engineer. — A  Company  formed 
and  a  Railroad  projected. — The  first  Prospectus  issued. — Opposition  to  the  Sur- 
vey.— Speculations  as  to  Railway  Speed. — George  Stephenson 's  Views  thought  ex- 
travagant.—Article  in  the  "  Quarterly" 247 

CHAPTER  X. 

PARLIAMENTARY  CONTEST  ON  THE  LIVERPOOL  AND  MANCHESTER  BILL. 
The  Bill  before  Parliament. — The  Evidence. — George  Stephenson  in  the  Witness- 
box. — Examined  as  to  Speed. — His  Cross-examination. — Examined  as  to  the  pos- 
sibility of  constructing  a  Line  on  Chat  Moss. — Mr.  Harrison's  Speech.— Mr.  Giles's 
Evidence  as  to  Chat  Moss. — Mr.  Alderson's  Speech. — The  Bill  lost. — Stephen- 
son's  Vexation. — The  Bill  revived,  with  the  Messrs.  Rennie  as  Engineers. — Sir 
Isaac  Coffin's  prophecies  of  Disaster. — The  Act  passed 265 

CHAPTER  XI. 

CHAT  Moss — CONSTRUCTION  OP  THE  LIVERPOOL  AND  MANCHESTER  RAILWAY. 

George  Stephenson  again  appointed  Engineer  of  the  Railway. — Chat  Moss  described. 
— The  resident  Engineers  of  the  Line. — George  Stephenson's  Theory  of  a  Float- 
ing Road  on  the  Moss. — Operations  begun. — The  Tar-barrel  Drains. — The  Em- 
bankment sinks  in  the  Moss.— Proposed  Abandonment  of  the  Works.— Stephen- 
son's  Perseverance. — The  Obstacles  conquered. — The  Tunnel  at  Liverpool. — The 
Olive  Mount  Cutting. — The  Sankey  Viaduct. — Stephenson's  great  Labors. — His 
daily  Life.— Evenings  at  Home 281 

CHAPTER  XII. 
ROBERT  STEPHENSON'S  RESIDENCE  IN  COLOMBIA  AND  RETURN — THE  "BATTLE 

OF  THE  LOCOMOTIVE." 

Robert  Stephenson  appointed  Mining  Engineer  in  Colombia.— Mule  Journey  to  Bo- 
gota.— Mariquita. — Silver  Mining. — Difficulties  with  the  Cornishmen. — His  Cot- 
tage at  Santa  Anna. — Resigns  his  Appointment. — Meeting  with  Trevithick. — 
Voyage  to  New  York,  and  Shipwreck. — Returns  to  Newcastle,  and  takes  Charge 


CONTENTS. 


of  the  Locomotive  Factory. — Discussion  as  to  the  Working  Power  of  the  Liver- 
pool and  Manchester  Railway. — Walker  and  Kastrick's  Eeport. — A  Prize  offered 
for  the  best  Locomotive. — Invention  of  the  Multitubular  Boiler. — Henry  Booth. — 
Construction  of  the  "Rocket." — The  Locomotive  Competition  at  Rainhill. — Tri- 
£  uinph  of  the  "  Rocket" Page  301 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
OPENING  OF  THE  LIVERPOOL  AND  MANCHESTER  RAILWAY,  AND  EXTENSION  OF 

THE  RAILWAY  SYSTEM. 

The  Railway  finished. — Organization  of  the  Working. — The  public  Opening. — Fatal 
Accident  to  Mr.  Huskisson. — The  Traffic  begun. — Improvements  in  the  Road, 
Rolling  Stock,  and  Locomotive. — Steam-carriages  tried  on  common  Roads. — New 
Railway  Projects. — Opposition  to  Railways  in  the  South  of  England. — Robert 
Stephenson  appointed  Engineer  of  Leicester  and  Swannington  Railway. — George 
removes  to  Snibston  and  sinks  for  Coal. — His  character  as  a  Master 329 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

ROBERT  STEPHENSON  CONSTRUCTS  THE  LONDON  AND  BIRMINGHAM  RAILWAY. 
The  London  and  Birmingham  Railway  projected. — George  and  Robert  Stephenson 
appointed  Engineers.— An  Opposition  organized.— Public  Meetings  against  the 
Scheme. — Robert  Stephenson's  Interview  with  Sir  A.  Cooper. — The  Survey  ob- 
structed.— The  Line  resurveyed. — The  Bill  in  Parliament. — Thrown  out  in  the 
Lords.— The  Project  revived.— The  Act  obtained.— The  Works  let  in  Contracts. 
— Difficulties  of  the  Undertaking. — The  Line  described. — Blisworth  Cutting. — 
Primrose  Hill  Tunnel.— Kilsby  Tunnel.— Its  Construction  described.— Failures 
of  Contractors.  — Magnitude  of  the  Works.  — The  Railway  navvies 349 

CHAPTER  XV. 

MANCHESTER  AND  LEEDS,  MIDLAND,  AND  OTHER  RAILWAYS — GENERAL  EXTEN- 
SION OF  RAILWAYS  AND  THEIR  RESULTS. 

Projection  of  new  Lines.— Dutton  Viaduct  on  the  Grand  Junction.— The  Manches- 
ter and  Leeds. — Incident  in  Committee. — Summit  Tunnel^  Littleborough. — The 
Midland  Railway.— The  Works  compared  with  the  Simplon  Road.— Slip  near 
Ambergate.—  Bull  Bridge.— The  York  and  North  Midland.— The  Scarborough 
Branch. — George  Stephenson  on  Estimates. — Stephenson  on  his  Surveys. — His 
quick  Observation. — His  extensive  Labors. — Traveling  and  Correspondence. — 
Life  at  Alton  Grange. — Stephenson's  London  Office. — Journeys  to  Belgium. — 
Interviews  with  the  King. — Public  Openings  of  English  Railways. — Stephenson's 
Assistants.— Results  of  Railroads... 365 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

GEORGE  STEPHENSON'S  COAL-MINES — OPINIONS  ON  RAILWAY  SPEEDS — RAILWAY 
MANIA. 

George  Stephenson  on  Railways  and  Coal  Traffic. — Leases  the  Ckycross  Estate. — 
His  Residence  at  Tapton.— His  Appearance  at  Mechanics'  Institutes.— His  Views 
on  Railway  Speed.— Undulating  Lines  favored.— Stephenson  on  Railway  Specula- 
tion.—Atmospheric  Railways  projected.— Opposed  by  Stephenson.— The  Railway 
Mania.— Action  of  Parliament.— Rage  for  direct  Lines.— Stephenson's  Letter  to 
Peel. — George  Hudson,  the  "Railway  King." — His  Fall. — Stephenson  again  visits 
Belgium. — Interview  with  King  Leopold. — Journey  into  Spain 392 


CONTENTS.  xli 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
KOBEET  STEPHENSON'S  CAREER — EAST  COAST  EOUTE  TO  SCOTLAND — HIGH- 

LEVEL  BRIDGE,  NEWCASTLE. 

Robert  Stephenson's  Career. — His  extensive  Employment  as  Parliamentary  Engi- 
neer.—His  rival,  Brunei.— The  Great  Western  Railway.— Width  of  Gauge.— Rob- 
ert Stephenson's  caution  as  to  Investments. — The  Newcastle  and  Berwick  Rail- 
way.— Contest  in  Parliament. — George  Stephenson's  Interview  with  Lord  Howick. 
— The  Royal  Border  Bridge,  Berwick. — Progress  of  Iron  Bridge-building. — ^Rob- 
ert Stephenson  constructs  the  High-Level  Bridge,  Newcastle. — Pile-driving  by 
Steam. — Merits  of  the  Structure. — The  through  Railway  to  Scotland  com- 
pleted  Page  421 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

CHESTER  AND  HOLTHEAD  RAILWAY — MENAI  AND  CONWAY  BRIDGES. 
George  Stephenson  Surveys  a  line  from  Chester  to  Holyhead. — Robert  Stephenson 
afterward  appointed  Engineer. — The  Railway  Works  under  Penmaen  Mawr. — 
The  Crossing  of  the  Menai  Strait. — Various  Plans  proposed. — A  Tubular  Beam 
determined  on. — Strength  of  wrought-iron  Tubes. — Mr.  William  Fairbairn  con- 
sulted.— His  Experiments. — Professor  Hodgkinson. — Chains  proposed,  and  event- 
ually discarded. — The  Bridge  Works. — The  Conway  Bridge. — Britannia  Bridge 
described. — Floating  of  the  Tubes. — Robert  Stephenson's  great  Anxiety. — Raising 
of  the  Tubes.— The  Hydraulic  Press  bursts.— The  Works  completed.— Merits  of 
the  Britannia  Bridge 438 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

X     CLOSING  YEARS  OF  GEORGE  STEPHEXSON'S  LIFE — ILLNESS  AND  DEATH. 

George  Stephenson's  Life  at  Tapton. — Experiments  in  Horticulture. — His  Farming 
Operations. — Affection  for  Animals. — Bee-keeping. — Reading  and  Conversation. 
— Rencounter  with  Lord  Denman. — Hospitality  at  Tapton. — His  Microscope. — 
A  "Crowdie  Night." — Visits  to  London. — Visits  Sir  Robert  Peel  at  Drayton 
Manor. — His  Conversation. — Encounter  with  Dr.  Buckland. — Coal  formed  by  the 
Sun's  Light. — Opening  of  the  Trent  Valley  Line  and  its  Celebration. — Meeting 
with  Emerson. — Illness,  Death,  and  Funeral. — Statues  of  George  Stephenson. — 
Personal  Characteristics 460 

CHAPTER  XX. 

ROBERT  STEPHEXSOX'S  VICTORIA  BRIDGE,  LOWER  CANADA — ILLNESS  AND  DEATH 
— THE  STEPHEXSON  CHARACTERISTICS. 

Robert  Stephenson's  gradual  Retirement  from  the  profession  of  Engineer. — His  Tu- 
bular Bridge  over  the  Nile. — Railways  in  Canada. — Proposed  Bridge  at  Montreal. 
— A  Tubular  Bridge  proposed. — Robert  Stephenson  appointed  Engineer. — Design 
of  the  Victoria  Bridge. — The  Piers. — Getting  in  of,  the  Foundations. — Progress 
of  the  Works. — Erection  of  the  Tubes. — Scene  at  the  breaking-up  of  the  Ice  in 
1858. — The  Night-work. — Erection  of  main  central  Tube. — Completion  of  the 
Works. — Robert  Stephenson  in  Parliament. — His  Opinion  of  the  Suez  Canal. — 
His  Honors. — Launch  of  the  Great  Eastern. — Last  Illness  and  Death. — The  Ste- 
phenson Characteristics. — Conclusion 474 

INDEX...  ...  497 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Portrait  of  George  Stephenson 

to  face  Title  Page. 

Portrait  of  Trevithick 

Tyne  Coal-staith 

Flange- rail 

Cugnot's  Steam-carriage 

Murdoch's  Model  Locomotive 

Symington's  Model  Steam-carriage . . 
Oliver  Evans's  Model  Locomotive. ... 

Trevithick's  Tram-engine 

High-Level  Bridge,  Newcastle 

Map  of  Newcastle  District 

Wylam 

High-Street  House,  Wylam 

Colliery  Wagons 110 

Newburn Ill 

Colliery  Gin 120 

Stephenson's  Cottage  at  Willington 

Quay..... 121 

Stephenson's  Signature 123 

West  Moor  Colliery 127 

Killingworth  High  Pit 136 

Glebe  Farm-house,  Benton 137 

Rutter's  School-house  at  Long  Ben- 

ton 140 

Brace's  School,  Newcastle 142 

Stephenson's  Cottage,  West  Moor....  146 

Sun-dial,  Killingworth 149 

Colliers'  Cottages,  Long  Benton 151 

Blenkinsop's  Leeds  Engine 1 55 

The  Wylam  Engine 160 

Spur-gear 164 

Killingworth  Locomotive  (Section)  ..  168 

Colliery  Whimsey 174 

Pit-head,  West  Moor 177 

Davy's     and    Stephenson's     Safety- 

lamps 187 

Literary  and  Philosophical  Institute, 

Newcastle 189 

The  Stephenson  Tankard 197 

Half-lap  Joint 200 

Old  Killingworth  Locomotive 201 

West  Moor  Pit,  Killingworth 214 

Portrait  of  Edward  Pease 

Map    of  Stockton    and  Darlington 

Railway 224 


Opening  of  Stockton  and  Darlington 

Railway 238 

The  First  Railway  Coach 241 

No.  1  Engine  at  Darlington 244 

Middlesborough-on-Tees 246 

Map   of  Liverpool   and  Manchester 

Railway 250-1 

Surveying  on  Chat  Moss 264 

Olive  Mount  Cutting 291 

Sankey  Viaduct .- 292 

Baiting-place  at  Sankey 296 

Chat  Moss — Works  in  progress 299 

Robert  Stephenson's  Cottage  at  San- 
ta Anna 306 

The  "Rocket" 321 

Locomotive  Competition  at  Rainhill.  324 

Railway  versus  Road 328 

Map  of  Leicester  and  Swannington 

Railway 343 

Alton  Grange , 346 

Portrait  of  Robert  Stephenson 348 

Map    of  London    and  Birmingham 

Railway 354 

Blisworth  Cutting 355 

Shafts,  KilsbyTunnel 357 

Kilsby  Tunnel  (North  end) 363 

Dutton  Viaduct 366 

Littleborough   Tunnel     (West     en- 
trance)   368 

Littleborough  Tunnel  (Walsden  end)  369 

Map  of  Midland  Railway 370, 

Land-slip,  Ambergate 372 

Bull  Bridge 373 

Coalville  and  Snibston  Colliery 391 

Tapton  House... 392 

Lime- works,  Ambergate 394 

Forth-Street  Works,  Newcastle 396 

Claycross  Works 420 

Newcastle  from  High-Level  Bridge..  421 

Royal  Border  Bridge,  Berwick 430 

Elevation  and  Plan  of  Arch,  High- 
Level  Bridge 436 

Railway  at  Penmaen  Mawr 440 

|  Map  of  Menai  Strait 442 

Construction  of  Britannia  Tube  on 
Staging 450 


xliv 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


C  onway  B  ri  dge 451 

Menai  Bridge 457 

Floating  First  Tube,  Conway  Bridge  459 

View  in  Tapton  Gardens 460 

Footpath  to  Tapton  House 465 

Trinity  Church,  Chesterfield 4  71 

Tablet  in  Trinity  Church 473 


Victoria  Bridge,  Montreal 474 

Elevation  of  Pier,  Victoria  Bridge...  478 

Works  in  Progress,  Victoria  Bridge  480 
Erection  of  the  Main  Central  Tube, 

Victoria  Bridge 483 

Stephenson  Memorial  Schools,  Wil- 

lington 496 


EARLY  INVENTORS  IN  LOCOMOTION. 


EICHAED  TEEVITHICK,  C.E. 


EARLY  INVENTORS  IN  LOCOMOTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

SCHEMERS   AND   PROJECTORS. 

IT  is  easy  to  understand  how  rapid  transit  from  place  to  place 
should,  from  the  earliest  times,  have  been  an  object  of  desire. 
The  marvelous  gift  of  speed  conferred  by  Fortunatus's  Wishing 
Cap  was  what  all  must  have  envied :  it  conferred  power.  It  also 
conferred  pleasure.  "  Life  has  not  many  things  better  than  this," 
said  Samuel  Johnson  as  he  rolled  along  in  the  post-chaise.  But 
it  also  conferred  comf ort  and  well-being ;  and  hence  the  easy  and 
rapid  transit  of  persons  and  commodities  became  in  all  countries 
an  object  of  desire  in  proportion  to  their  growth  in  civilization. 

We  have  elsewhere*  endeavored  to  describe  the  obstructions 
to  the  progress  of  society  occasioned  by  the  defective  internal 
communications  of  Britain  in  early  times,  which  were  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  removed  by  the  adoption  of  the  canal  system, 
and  the  improvement  of  our  roads  and  highways,  toward  the  end 
of  last  century.  But  the  progress  of  industry  was  so  rapid — the 
invention  of  new  tools,  machines,  and  engines  so  greatly  increased 
the  productive  wealth  of  the  nation — that  some  forty  years  since 
it  was  found  that  these  roads  and  canals,  numerous  and  excellent 
though  they  might  be,  were  altogether  inadequate  for  the  accom- 
modation of  the  traffic  of  the  country,  which  was  increasing  in 
almost  a  direct  ratio  with  the  increased  application  of  steam- 
power  to  the  purposes  of  productive  industry. 

The  inventive  minds  of  the  nation,  always  on  the  alert — the 
"  schemers"  and  the  "  projectors,"  to  whom  society  has  in  all  times 
been  so  greatly  indebted — proceeded  to  apply  themselves  to  the 
solution  of  the  problem  of  how  the  communications  of  the  coun- 
try were  best  to  be  improved ;  and  the  result  was,  that  the  power 
*  "Lives  of  the  Engineers,"  vols.  i.  and  ii. 


48  "    SCHEMERS  AND  PROJECTORS.  [PART  I. 

of  steam  itself  was  applied  to  remedy  the  inconveniences  which 
it  had  caused. 

Like  most  inventions,  that  of  the  Steam  Locomotive  was  very 
gradually  made.  The  idea  of  it,  born  in  one  age,  was  revived  in 
the  ages  that  followed.  It  was  embodied  first  in  one  model, 
then  in  another — the  labors  of  one  inventor  being  taken  up  by 
liis  successors  —  until  at  length,  after  many  disappointments 
and  many  failures,  the  practicable  working  locomotive  was 
achieved. 

The  locomotive  engine  was  not,  however,  sufficient  for  the 
purposes  of  cheap  and  rapid  transit.  Another  expedient  was  ab- 
solutely essential  to  its  success — that  of  the  Railway :  the  smooth 
rail  to  bear  the  load,  as  well  as  the  steam-engine  to  draw  it. 

Expedients  were  early  adbpted  for  the  purpose  of  diminishing 
friction  between  the  wheels  of  vehicles  and  the  roads  along  which 
they  were  dragged  by  horse-power.  The  Romans  employed  stone 
blocks  with  that  object;  and  the  streets  of  the  long-buried  city 
of  Pompeii  still  bear  the  marks  of  the  ancient  Roman  chariot- 
wheels,  as  the  stone  track  for  heavy  vehicles  on  our  modern  Lon- 
don Bridge  shows  the  wheel-marks  of  the  wagons  which  cross  it. 
These  stone  blocks  were  merely  a  simple  expedient  to  diminish 
friction,  and  were  the  first  steps  toward  a  railroad. 

The  railway  proper  doubtless  originated  in  the  coal  districts 
of  the  North  of  England  and  Wales,  where  it  was  found  useful 
in  facilitating  the  transport  of  coals  from  the  pits  to  the  shipping- 
places.  At  an  early  period  the  coal  was  carried  to  the  boats  in 
panniers,  or  in  sacks  upon  horses'  backs.  Next  carts  were  used, 
and  tram-ways  of  flag-stone  were  laid  down,  along  which  they 
were  easily  hauled.  The  carts  were  then  converted  into  wagons, 
and  mounted  on  four  wheels  instead  of  two. 

Still  farther  to  facilitate  the  haulage  of  the 'wagons,  pieces  of 
planking  were  laid  parallel  upon  wooden  sleepers,  or  imbedded 
in  the  ordinary  track.  It  is  said  that  these  wooden  rails  were 
first  employed  by  a  Mr.  Beaumont,  a  gentleman  from  the  South, 
who,  about  the  year  1630,  adventured  in  the  northern  mines  with 
about  thirty  thousand  pounds,  and  after  introducing  many  im- 
provements in  the  working  of  the  coal,  as  well  as  in  the  methods 
of  transporting  it  to  the  staithes  on  the  river,  was  ruined  by  his 
enterprise,  and  "within  a  few  Years,"  to  use  the  words 'of  the 


CHAP.  L]  COAL  WAGON-WAYS.  49 

ancient  chronicler, "  he  consumed  all  his  Money,  and  rode  Home 
upon  his  light  Horse."* 


OOAL-STAITH  ON   THE  TYNE.       [By  R.  P.  Leitch.] 


The  use  of  wooden  rails  gradually  extended,  and  they  were 
laid  down  -between  most  of  the  collieries  on  the  Tyne  and  the 
places  at  which  the  coal  was  shipped.  Roger  North,  in  1676, 
found  the  practice  had  become  extensively  adopted,  and  he 
speaks  of  the  large  sums  then  paid  for  way-leave — that  is,  the 
permission  granted  by  the  owners  of  lands  lying  between  the 
coal-pits  and  the  river-side  to  lay  down  a  tram-way  for  the  pur- 
pose of  connecting  the  one  with  the  other. 

A  century  later,  Arthur  Young  observed  that  not  only  had 
these  roads  become  greatly  multiplied,  but  formidable  works  had 
been  constructed  to  carry  them  along  upon  the  same  level.  "  The 
coal  wagon-roads  from  the  pits  to  the  water,"  he  says,  "  are  great 
works,  carried  over  all  sorts  of  inequalities  of  ground,  so  far  as 
the  distance  of  nine  or  ten  miles.  The  tracks  of  the  wheels  are 
marked  with  pieces  of  wood  let  into  the  road  for  the  wheels  of 
the  wagons  to  run  on,  by  which  one  horse  is  enabled  to  draw,  and 
that  with  ease,  fifty  or  sixty  bushels  of  coals."f 

Saint  Fond,  the  French  traveler,  who  visited  Newcastle  in  1791, 
described  the  colliery  wagon-ways  in  that  neighborhood  as  supe- 
rior to  any  thing  of  the  kind  he  had  seen.  The  wooden  rails 

*  Harleian  MSS.,  vol.  iii.,  269. 
t  "Six  Months'  Tour,"  voL  iii.,  9. 

D 


50  SCHEMERS  AND  PROJECTORS.  [PART  I. 

were  formed  with  a  rounded  upper  surface,  like  a  projecting 
moulding,  and  the  wagon-wheels  being  "  made  of  cast  iron,  and 
hollowed  in  the  manner  of  a  metal  pulley,"  readily  fitted  the 
rounded  surface  of  the  rails.  The  economy  with  which  the  coal 
was  thus  hauled  to  the  shipping-places  was  urged  by  Saint  Fond 
as  an  inducement  to  his  own  countrymen  to  adopt  a  like  method 
of  transit.*  . 

Similar  wagon-roads  were  early  laid  down  in  the  coal  districts 
of  Wales,  Cumberland,  and  Scotland.  At  the  time  of  the  Scotch 
rebellion  in  1745,  a  tram-road  existed  between  the  Tranent  coal: 
pits  and  the  small  harbor  of  Cockenzie,  in  East  Lothian ;  and  a 
portion  of  the  line  was  selected  by  General  Cope  as  a  position 
for  his  cannon  at  the  battle  of  Prestonpans. 

In  these  rude  wooden  tracks  we  find  the  germ  of  the  modem 
railroad.  Improvements  were  gradually  made  in  them.  Thus, 
at  some  collieries,  thin  plates  of  iron  were  nailed  upon  their  up- 
per surface,  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  parts  most  exposed 
to  friction.  Cast-iron  rails  were  also  tried,  the  wooden  rails  hav- 
ing been  found  liable  to  rot.  The  first  iron  rails  are  supposed  to 
have  been  laid  down  at  Whitehaven  as  early  as  1738.  This  cast- 
iron  road  was  denominated  a  "  plate-way,"  from  the  plate-like 
form  in  which  the  rails  were  cast.  In  1767,  as  appears  from  the 
books  of  the  Coalbrookdale  Iron  Works,  in  Shropshire,  five  or  six 
tons  of  rails  were  cast,  as  an  experiment,  on  the  suggestion  of  Mr. 
Keynolds,  one  of  the  partners ;  and  they  were  shortly  after  laid 
down  to  form  a  road. 

In  1776,  a  cast-iron  tram- way,  nailed  to 
wooden  sleepers,  was  laid  down  at  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk's  colliery  near  Sheffield. 
The  person  who  designed  and  constructed 
this  coal  line  was  Mr.  John  Curr,  whose 
son  has  erroneously  claimed  for  him  the 
invention  of  the  cast-iron  railway.  He 
certainly  adopted  it  early,  and  thereby  met 
the  fate  of  men  before  their  age ;  for  his 
plan  was  opposed  by  the  laboring  people 
of  the  colliery,  who  got  up  a  riot,  in  which 
they  tore  up  the  road  and  burned  the  coal-staith,  while  Mr.  Curr 

"Travels  in  England,  Scotland,  and  the  Hebrides,"  vol.  i.,  142. 


CHAP.  I.]  ORIGIN  OF  THE  RAILWAY.  51 

fled  into  a  neighboring  wood  for  concealment,  and  lay  there 
perdu  for  three  days  and  nights,  to  escape  the  fury  of  the  popu- 
lace.* The  plates  of  these  early  tram-ways  had  a  ledge  cast  on 
their  outer  edge  to  guide  the  wheel  along  the  road,  after  the  man- 
ner shown  in  the  preceding  cut. 

In  1789,  Mr.  William  Jessop  constructed  a  railway  at  Lough- 
borough,  in  Leicestershire,  and  there  introduced  the  ca'st-iron 
edge-rail,  with  flanches  cast  upon  the  tire  of  the  wagon- wheels  to 
keep  them  on  the  track,  instead  of  having  the  margin  or  flanch 
cast  upon  the  rail  itself ;  and  this  plan  was  shortly  after  adopted 
in  other  places.  In  1800,  Mr.  Benjamin  Outram,  of  Little  Eaton, 
Derbyshire  (father  of  the  distinguished  General  Outram),  used 
stone  props  instead  of  timber  for  supporting  the  ends  or  joinings 
of  the  rails.  Thus  the  use  of  railroads,  in  various  forms,  gradu- 
ally extended,  until  they  became  generally  adopted  in  the  mining 
districts. 

Such  was  the  growth  of  the  railroad,  which,  it  will  be  observed, 
originated  in  necessity,  and  was  modified  according  to  experience ; 
progress  in  this,  as  in  all  departments  of  mechanics,  having  been 
.effected  by  the  exertions  of  many  men ;  one  generation  entering 
upon  the  labors  of  that  which  preceded  it,  and  carrying  them  on- 
ward to  farther  stages  of  improvement.  The  invention  of  the 
locomotive  was  in  like  manner  made  by  successive  steps.  It  was 
not  the  invention  of  one  man,  but  of  a  succession  of  men,  each 
working  at  the  proper  hour,  and  according  to  the  needs  of  that 
hour ;  one  inventor  interpreting  only  the  first  word  of  the  prob- 
lem which  his  successors  were  to  solve  after  long  and  laborious 
efforts  and  experiments.  "The  locomotive  is  not  the  invention 
of  one  man,"  said  Kobert  Stephenson  at  Newcastle, "  but  of  a  na- 
tion of  mechanical  engineers." 

Down  to  the  end  of  last  century,  and  indeed  down  almost  to 
our  own  time,  the  only  power  used  in  haulage  was  that  of  the 
horse.  Along  the  common  roads  of  the  country  the  poor  horses 
were  "  tearing  their  hearts  out"  in  dragging  cumbersome  vehicles 
behind  them,  and  the  transport  of  merchandise  continued  to  be 
slow,  dear,  and  in  all  respects  unsatisfactory.  Many  expedients 
were  suggested  with  the  view  of  getting  rid  of  the  horse.  The 

*  "  Railway  Locomotion  and  Steam  Navigation,  their  Principles  and  Practice." 
By  John  Curr.  London,  1847. 


52  SCHEMm^ND  PROJECTORS.  [PAST  I. 

power  of  wind  was  one  of  the  first  expedients  proposed.  It  was 
cheap,  though  by  no  means  regular.  It  impelled  ships  by  sea ; 
why  should  it  not  be  used  to  impel  carriages  by  land  ? 

The  first  sailing-coach  was  invented  by  one  Simon  Stevinius, 
or  Stevins,  a  Fleming,  toward  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
Pierre  Gassendi  gives  an  account  of  its  performances  as  fol- 
lows: 

"  Purposing  to  visit  Grotius,  Peireskius  went  to  Scheveling  that 
he  might  satisfy  himself  of  the  carriage  and  swiftness  of  a  coach  a 
few  years  before  invented,  and  made  with  that  artifice  that  with 
expanded  sails  it  would  fly  upon  the  shore  as  a  ship  upon  the  sea. 
He  had  formerly  heard  that  Count  Maurice,  a  little  after  his  victory 
at  Meuport  [1600],  had  put  himself  thereinto,  together  with  Francis 
Mendoza,  his  prisoner,  on  purpose  to  make  trial  thereof,  and  that, 
within  two  hours,  they  arrived  at  Putten,  which  is  distant  from 
Scheveling  fourteen  leagues,  or  two-and-forty  miles.  He  had,  there- 
fore, a  mind  to  make  the  experiment  himself,  and  he  would  often 
tell  us  with  what  admiration  he  was  seized  when  he  was  carried 
with  a  quick  wind  and  yet  perceived  it  not,  the  coach's  motion  be- 
ing equally  quick."* 

The  sailing-coach,  however,  was  only  a  curiosity.  As  a  practi- 
cable machine,  it  proved  worthless,  for  the  wind  could  not  be 
depended  upon  for  land  locomotion.  The  coach  could  not  tack 
as  the  ship  did.  Sometimes  the  wind  did  not  blow  at  all,  while 
at  other  times  it  blew  a  hurricane.  After  being  used  for  some 
time  as  a  toy,  the  sailing-coach  was  given  up  as  impracticable, 
and  the  project  speedily  dropped  out  of  sight." 

But,  strange  to  say,  the  expedient  of  driving  coal-wagons  by 
the  wind  was  revived  in  Wales  about  a  century  later.  On  this 
occasion,  Sir  Humphry  Mackworth,  an  ingenious  coal -miner  at 
Neath,  was  the  projector.  Waller,  in  his  "  Essay  on  Mines,"  pub- 
lished in  1698,  takes  the  opportunity  of  eulogizing  Sir  Humphry's 
"  new  sailing-wagons,  for  the  cheap  carriage  of  his  coal  to  the 
water-side,  whereby  one  horse  does  the  work  of  ten  at  all  times ; 
but  when  any  wind  is  stirring  (which  is  seldom  wanting  near  the 
sea),  one  man  and  a  small  sail  do  the  work  of  twenty ."f  It  does 

•  *  A  curious  account  of  this  early  project  is  to  be  found  in  the  library  of  the  British 
Museum,  under  the  name  "  Stevin,  1652." 

t  The  writer  adds— "  I  believe  he  (Sir  Humphry  Mackworth)  is  the  first  gentleman 


CHAP.  I.]  FRANKLIN,  BOULTON^iigJXSXcS&tt  53 


not,  however,  appear  that  any  other  coal-owner  had  the  courage 
to  follow  Sir  Humphry's  example,  and  the  sailing-wagon  was  for- 
gotten until,  after  the  lapse  of  another  century,  it  was  revived  by 
Mr.  Edgeworth. 

The  employment  of  steam-power  as  a  means  of  land  locomo- 
tion was  the  subject  of  much  curious  speculation  long  before  any 
practical  attempt  was  made  to  carry  it  into  effect.  The  merit 
of  promulgating  the  first  idea  with  reference  to  it  probably  be- 
longs to  no  other  than  the  great  Sir  Isaac  Newton.  In  his  "  Ex- 
planation of  the  Newtonian  Philosophy,"  written  in  1680,  he  fig- 
ured a  spherical  generator,  supported  on  wheels,  and  provided 
with  a  seat  for  a  passenger  in  front,  and  a  long  jet-pipe  behind, 
and  stated  that "  the  whole  is  to  be  mounted  on  little  wheels,  so  as 
to  move  easily  on  a  horizontal  plane,  and  if  the  hole,  or  jet-pipe, 
be  opened,  the  vapor  will  rush  out  violently  one  way,  and  the 
wheels  and  the  ball  at  the  same  time  will  be  carried  the  contrary 
way."  This,  it  will  be  observed,  was  but  a  modification  of  the 
earliest  known  steam-engine,  or  (Eolopile,  of  Hero  of  Alexandria. 
It  is  not  believed  that  Sir  Isaac  Newton  ever  made  any  experi- 
ment of  his  proposed  method  of  locomotion,  or  did  more  than 
merely  throw  out  the  idea  for  other  minds  to  work  upon. 

The  idea  of  employing  steam  in  locomotion  was  revived  from 
time  to  time,  and  formed  the  subject  of  much  curious  specula- 
tion. About  the  middle  of  last  century  we  find  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin, then  agent  in  London  for  the  United  Provinces  of  America, 
Matthew  Boulton,  of  Birmingham,  and  Erasmus  Darwin,  of  Lich- 
field,  engaged  in  a  correspondence  relative  to  steam  as  a  motive 
power.  Boulton  had  made  a  model  of  a  fire-engine,  which  he 
sent  to  London  for  Franklin's  inspection ;  and  though  the  origi- 
nal purpose  for  which  the  engine  had  been  contrived  was  the 
pumping  of  water,  it  was  believed  to  be  practicable  to  employ  it 
also  as  a  means  of  locomotion.  Franklin  was  too  much  occupied 
at  the  time  by  grave  political  questions  to  pursue  the  subject ; 
but  the  sanguine  and  speculative  mind  of  Erasmus  Darwin  was 
inflamed  by  the  idea  of  a  "  fiery  chariot,"  and  he  pressed  his 

in  this  part  of  the  world  that  hath  set  up  sailing  engines  on  land,  driven  by  the  wind ; 
not  for  any  curiosity  or  vain  applause,  bufrfor  real  profit ;  whereby  he  could  not  fail  of 
Bishop  Malkin's  blessing  on  his  undertakings,  in  case  he  Avere  in  a  capacity  to  be- 
stow it." 


54  SCHEMERS  AND  PROJECTORS.  [PART  I. 

friend  Boulton  to  prosecute  the  contrivance  of  the  necessary 
steam  machine.* 

Erasmus  Darwin  was  in  many  respects  a  remarkable  man.  In 
his  own  neighborhood  he  was  highly  esteemed  as  a  physician,  and 
by  many  intelligent  readers  of  his  day  he  was  greatly  prized  as  a 
poet.  Horace  Walpole  said  of  his  "  Botanic  Garden"  that  it  was 
"  the  most  delicious  poem  upon  earth,"  and  he  declared  that  he 
"could  read  it  over  and  over  again  forever."  The  doctor  was 
accustomed  to  write  his  poems  with  a  pencil  on  little  scraps  of 
paper  while  riding  about  among  his  patients  in  his  "  sulky."  The 
vehicle,  which  was  worn  and  bespattered  outside,  had  room  with- 
in it  for  the  doctor  and  his  appurtenances  only.  On  one  side  of 
him  was  a  pile  of  books  reaching  from  the  floor  to  nearly  the 
front  window  of  the  carriage,  while  on  the  other  was  a  hamper 
containing  fruit  and  sweetmeats,  with  a  store  of  cream  and  sug- 
ar, with  which  the  occupant  regaled  himself  during  his  journey. 
Lashed  on  to  the  place  usually  appropriated  to  the  "  boot"  was  a 
large  pail  for  watering  the  horses,  together  with  a  bag  of  oats 
and  a  bundle  of  hay.  Such  was  the  equipage  of  a  fashionable 
country  physician  of  the  last  century. 

Dr.  Darwin  was  a  man  of  large  and  massive  person,  bearing  a 
rather  striking  resemblance  to  his  distinguished  townsman,  Dr. 
Johnson,  in  manner,  deportment,  and  force  of  character.  He  was 
full  of  anecdote,  and  his  conversation  was  most  original  and  en- 
tertaining. He  was  a  very  outspoken  man,  vehemently  enun- 
ciating theories  which  some  thought  original  and  others  danger- 
ous. As  he  drove  through  the  country  in  his  "  sulky,"  his  mind 
teemed  with  speculation  on  all  subjects,  from  zoonomy,  botany, 
and  physiology,  to  physics,  aesthetics,  and  mental  philosophy. 
Though  his  speculations  were  not  always  sound,  they  were  clever 
and  ingenious,  and,  at  all  events,  they  had  the  effect  of  setting 
other  minds  a-thinking  and  speculating  on  science  and  the  meth- 
ods for  its  advancement.  From  his  "  Loves  of  the  Plants"— aft- 
erward so  cleverly  parodied  by  George  Canning  in  his  "  Loves 
of  the  Triangles"— it  would  appear  that  the  doctor  even  enter- 
tained a  theory  of  managing  the  winds  by  a  little  philosophic 
artifice.  His  scheme  of  a  steam  locomotive  was  of  a  more  prac- 

*  See  farther,  "Lives  of  the  Engineers,"  vol.  iv.,  Boulton  and  Watt,  p.  182-4. 


CHAP.  I.]  DR.  DARWIN'S  "FIERY  CHARIOT."  55 

tical  character.     This  idea,  like  so  many  others,  first  occurred  to 
him  in  his  "  sulky." 

"  As  I  was  riding  home  yesterday,"  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Boul- 
ton  in  the  year  1765,  "I  considered  the  scheme  of  the  fiery  chariot, 
and  the  longer  I  contemplated  this  favorite  idea,  the  more  practica- 
ble it  appeared  to  me.  I  shall  lay  my  thoughts  before  you,  crude 
and  undigested  though  they  may  appear  to  be,  telling  you  as  well 
what  I  thought  would  not  do  as  what  would  do,  as  by  those  hints 
you  may  be  led  into  various  trains  of  thinking  upon  this  subject, 
and  by  that  means  (if  any  hints  can  assist  your  genius,  which,  with- 
out hints,  is  above  all  others  I  am  acquainted  with)  be  more  likely 
to  improve  or  disapprove.  And  as  I  am  quite  mad  of  this  scheme, 
I  beg  you  will  not  mention  it,  or  show  this  paper  to  Wyat  or  any 
body. 

"These  things  are  required:  1st,  a  rotary  motion;  2 d,  easily  al- 
tering its  direction  to  any  other  direction ;  3d,  to  be  accelerated, 
retarded,  destroyed,  revived  instantly  and  easily ;  4th,  the  bulk,  the 
weight,  and  expense  of  the  machine  to  be  as  small  as  possible  in 
proportion  to  its  use."* 

He  then  goes  on  to  throw  out  various  suggestions  as  to  the 
form  and  arrangement  of  the  machine,  the  number  of  wheels  on 
which  it  was  to  run,  and  the  mode  of  applying  the  power.  The 
text  of  this  letter  is  illustrated  by  rough  diagrams,  showing  a 
vehicle  mounted  on  three  wheels,  the  foremost  or  guiding  wheel 
being  under  the  control  of  the  driver ;  but  in  a  subsequent  pas- 
sage he  says,  "  I  think  four  wheels  will  be  better." 

"  Let  there  be  two  cylinders,"  he  proceeds.  "  Suppose  one  piston 
up,  and  the  vacuum  made  under  it  by  the  jet  cTeaufroid.  That  pis- 
ton can  not  yet  descend  because  the  cock  is  not  yet  opened  which 
admits  the  steam  into  its  antagonist  cylinder.  Hence  the  two  pis- 
tons are  in  equilibrio,  being  either  of  them  pressed  by  the  atmos- 
phere. Then  I  say,  if  the  cock  which  admits  the  steam  into  the 
antagonist  cylinder  be  opened  gradually  and  not  with  a  jerk,  that 
the  first-mentioned  [piston  in  the]  cylinder  will  descend  gradually 
and  not  less  forcibly.  Hence,  by  the  management  of  the  steam 
cocks,  the  motion  may  be  accelerated,  retarded,  destroyed,  revived 
instantly  and  easily.  And  if  this  answers  in  practice  as  it  does  in 
theory,  the  machine  can  not  fail  of  success !  Eureka ! 
*  Soho  MSS. 


50  SCHEMERS  AND  PROJECTORS.  [PART  I. 

"The  cocks  of  the  cold  water  may  be  moved  by  the  great  work, 
but  the  steam  cocks  must  be  managed  by  the  hand  of  the  chari- 
oteer, who  also  directs  the  rudder-wheel.  [Then  follow  his  rough 
diagrams.]  The  central  wheel  ought  to  have  been  under  the  roll- 
ers, so  as  it  may  be  out  of  the  way  of  the  boiler."* 

After  farther  explaining  himself,  he  goes  on  to  say : 

"  If  you  could  learn  the  expense  of  coals  to  a  common  fire-engine 
and  the  weight  of  water  it  draws,  some  certain  estimate  may  be 
made  if  such  a  scheme  as  this  would  answer.  Pray  don't  show 
Wyat  this  scheme,  for  if  you  think  it  feasible  and  will  send  me  a 
critique  upon  it,  I  will  certainly,  if  I  can  get  somebody  to  bear  half 
the  expense  with  me,  endeavor  to  build  a  fiery  chariot,  and,  if  it 
answers,  get  a  patent.  If  you  choose  to  be  partner  with  me  in  the 
profit,  and  expense,  and  trouble,  let  me  know,  as  I  am  determined 
to  execute  it  if  you  approve  of  it. 

"  Please  to  remember  the  pulses  of  the  common  fire-engines,  and 
say  in  what  manner  the  piston  is  so  made  as  to  keep  out  the  air  in 
its  motion.  By  what  way  is  the  jet  d'eaufroidlet  out  of  the  cylin- 
der? How  full  of  water  is  the  boiler?  How  is  it  supplied,  and 
what  is  the  quantity  of  its  waste  of  water  ?"f 

It  will  be  observed  from  these  remarks  that  the  doctor's  no- 
tions were  of  the  crudest  sort,  and,  as  he  obviously  contemplated 
but  a  modification  of  the  Newcomen  engine,  then  chiefly  em- 
ployed in  pumping  water  from  mines,  the  action  of  which  was 
slow,  clumsy,  and  expensive,  the  steam  being  condensed  by  injec- 
tion of  cold  water,  it  is  clear  that,  even  though  Boulton  had  taken 
up  and  prosecuted  Darwin's  idea,  it  could  not  have  issued  in  a 
practicable  or  economical  working  locomotive. 

But,  although  Darwin  himself — his  time  engrossed  by  his  in- 
creasing medical  practice— proceeded  no  farther  with  his  scheme 
of  a  "fiery  chariot,"  he  succeeded  in  inflaming  the  mind  of  his 
young  friend,  Kichard  Lovell  Edgeworth,  who  had  settled  for  a 
time  in  his  neighborhood,  and  induced  him  to  direct  his  attention 
to  the  introduction  of  improved  means  of  locomotion  by  steam. 
In  a  Better  written  by  Dr.  Small  to  Watt  in  1768,  we  find  him 
describing  Edgeworth  as  "  a  gentleman  of  fortune,  young,  me- 
chanical, and  indefatigable,  who  has  taken  a  resolution  to  move 
land  and  water  carriages  by  steam,  and  has  made  considerable 
*  Soho  MSS.  f  Ibid> 


CHAP.  I.]  MR.  EDGEWORTH'S  SCHEMES.  57 

progress  in  the  short  space  of  time  that  he  has  devoted  to  the 
study." 

One  of  the  first-fruits  of  Edgeworth's  investigations  was  his 
paper  "  On  Railroads,"  which  he  read  before  the  Society  of  Arts 
in  1768,  and  for  which  he  was  awarded  the  society's  gold  medal. 
He  there  proposed  that  four  iron  railroads  be  laid  down  on  one 
of  the  great  roads  out  of  London ;  two  for  carts  and  wagons,  and 
two  for  light  carriages  and  stage-coaches.  The  post-chaises  and 
gentlemen's  carriages  might,  he  thought,  be  made  to  go  at  eight 
miles  an  hour,  and  the  stage-coaches  at  six  miles  an  hour,  drawn 
by  a  single  horse.  He  urged  that  such  a  method  of  transport 
would  be  attended  with  great  economy  of  power  and  consequent 
cheapness.  Many  years  later,  in  1802,  he  published  his  views  on 
the  same  subject  in  a  more  matured  form.  By  that  time  Watt's 
steam-engine  had  come  into  general  use,  and  he  suggested  that 
small  stationary  engines  should  be  fixed  along  his  proposed  rail- 
road, and  made,  by  means  of  circulating  chains,  to  draw  the  car- 
riages along  with  a  great  diminution  of  horse  labor  and  expense. 

It  is  creditable  to  Mr.  Edgeworth's  forethought  that  both  the 
models  proposed  by  him  have  since  been  adopted.  Horse-trac- 
tion of  carriages  on  railways  is  now  in  general  use  in  the  towns 
of  the  United  States ;  and  omnibuses  on  the  same  principle  reg- 
ularly ply  between  the  Place  de  la  Concorde  at  Paris  and  St. 
Cloud,  both  being  found  highly  convenient  for  the  public,  and 
profitable  to  the  proprietors.  The  system  of  working  railways 
by  fixed  engines  was  also  regularly  employed  on  some  lines  in 
the  infancy  of  the  railway  system,  though  it  has  since  fallen  into 
disuse,  in  consequence  of  the  increased  power  given  to  the  mod- 
ern locomotive,  which  enables  it  to  surmount  gradients  formerly 
considered  impracticable.  • 

Besides  his  speculations  on  railways  worked  by  horse  and 
steam  power,  Mr.  Edgeworth — unconscious  of  the  early  experi- 
ments of  Stevins  and  Mackworth — made  many  attempts  to  apply 
the  power  of  the  wind  with  the  same  object.  It  is  stated  in  his 
"  Memoirs"  that  he  devoted  himself  to  locomotive  traction  by  va- 
rious methods  for  a  period  of  about  forty  years,  during  which  he 
made  above  a  hundred  working  models,  in  a  great  variety  of 
forms ;  and  though  none  of  his  schemes  were  attended  with  prac- 
tical success,  he  adds  that  he  gained  far  more  in  amusement  than 


58  SCHEMERS  AND  PROJECTORS.  [PART  I. 

he  lost  by  his  unsuccessful  labors.  "  The  only  mortification  that 
affected  me,"  he  says, "  was  my  discovery,  many  years  after  I  had 
taken  out  my  patent  [for  the  sailing-carriage],  that  the  rudiments 
of  my  whole  scheme  were  mentioned  in  an  obscure  memoir  of 
the  French  Academy." 

The  sailing- wagon  scheme,  as  revived  by  Mr.  Edgeworth,  was 
doubtless  of  a  highly  ingenious  character,  though  it  was  not  prac- 
ticable. One  of  his  expedients  was  a  portable  railway,  of  a  kind 
somewhat  similar  to  that  since  revived  by  Mr.  Boydell.  Many 
experiments  were  tried  with  the  new  wagons  on  Hare  Hatch 
Common,  but  they  were  attended  with  so  much  danger  when  the 
wind  blew  strong — the  vehicles  seeming  to  fly  rather  than  roll 
along  the  ground — that  farther  experiments  were  abandoned,  and 
Mr.  Edgeworth  himself  at  length  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a 
power  so  uncertain  as  that  of  the  wind  could  never  be  relied 
upon  for  the  safe  conduct  of  ordinary  traffic.  His  thoughts 
finally  settled  on  steam  as  the  only  practicable  power  for  this 
purpose ;  but,  though  his  enthusiasm  in  the  cause  of  improved 
transit  of  persons  and  of  goods  remained  unabated,  he  was  now 
too  far  advanced  in  life  to  prosecute  his  investigations  in  that  di- 
rection. When  an  old  man  of  seventy  he  wrote  to  James  Watt 
(7th  August,  1813) :  "  I  have  always  thought  that  steam  would 
become  the  universal  lord,  and  that  we  should  in  time  scorn  post- 
horses.  An  iron  railroad  would  be  a  cheaper  thing  than  a  road 
on  the  common  construction.  Four  years  later  he  died,  and  left 
the  problem,  which  he  had  nearly  all  his  life  been  trying  ineffec- 
tually to  solve,  to  be  worked  out  by  younger  men. 

Dr.  Darwin  had  long  before  preceded  him  into  the  silent  land. 
Down  to  his  death  in  1802,  Edgeworth  had  kept  up  a  continuous 
correspondence  with  him  on  his  favorite  topic ;  but  it  does  not 
appear  that  Darwin  ever  revived  his  project  of  the  "  fiery  chari- 
ot." He  was  satisfied  to  prophesy  its  eventual  success  in  the 
lines  which  are  perhaps  more  generally  known  than  any  he  has 
written — for,  though  Horace  Walpole  declared  that  he  could 
"  read  the  Botanic  Garden  over  and  over  again  forever,"  the 
poetry  of  Darwin  is  now  all  but  forgotten.  The  following  was 
his  prophecy,  published  in  1791,  before  any  practical  locomotive 
or  steam-boat  had  been  invented : 


CHAP.  I.]  DR.  DARWIN'S  PROPHECY.  59 

"  Soon  shall  thy  arm,  unconquered  steam,  afar 
Drag  the  slow  barge,  or  drive  the  rapid  car ; 
Or  on  wide- waving  wings  expanded  bear 
The  flying  chariot  through  the  fields  of  air. 
Fair  crews  triumphant,  leaning  from  above, 
Shall  wave  their  flutt'ring  kerchiefs  as  they  move ; 
Or  warrior  bands  alarm  the  gaping  crowd, 
And  armies  shrink  beneath  the  shadowy  cloud. " 

The  prophecy  embodied  in  the  first  two  lines  of  the  passage 
has  certainly  been  fulfilled,  but  the  triumph  of  the  steam  balloon 
has  yet  to  come. 


60  EARLY  LOCOMOTIVE  MODELS.  [PART  I. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

EAELY   LOCOMOTIVE   MODELS. 

THE  application  of  steam-power  to  the  driving  of  wheel-car- 
riages on  common  roads  was  in  1759  brought  under  the  notice 
of  James  Watt  by  his  young  friend  John  Eobison,  then  a  student 
at  the  University  of  Glasgow.  Kobison  prepared  a  rough  sketch 
of  his  suggested  steam-carriage,  in  which  he  proposed  to  place 
the  cylinder  with  its  open  end  downward,  to  avoid  the  necessity 
for  using  a  working  beam.  Watt  was  then  only  twenty-three 
years  old,  and  was  very  much  occupied  in  conducting  his  busi- 
ness of  a  mathematical  instrument  maker,  which  he  had  only  re- 
cently established.  Nevertheless,  he  proceeded  to  construct  a 
model  locomotive  provided  with  two  cylinders  of  tin-plate,  in- 
tending that  the  pistons  and  their  connecting-rods  should  act  al- 
ternately on  two  pinions  attached  to  the  axles  of  the  carriage- 
wheels.  But  the  model,  when  made,  did  not  answer  Watt's  ex- 
pectations ;  and  when,  shortly  after,  Robison  left  college  to  go  to 
sea,  he  laid  the  project  aside,  and  did  not  resume  it  for  many 
years. 

In  the  mean  time,  an  ingenious  French  mechanic  had  taken  up 
the  subject,  and  proceeded  to  make  a  self -moving  road  engine 
worked  by  steam-power.  It  has  been  incidentally  stated  that  a 
M.  Pouillet  was  the  first  to  make  a  locomotive  machine,*  but  no 
particulars  are  given  of  the  invention,  which  is  more  usually  at- 
tributed to  Nicholas  Joseph  Cugnot,  a  native  of  Void,  in  Lorraine, 
where  he  was  born  in  1729.  Not  much  is  known  of  Cugnot's 
early  history  beyond  that  he  was  an  officer  in  the  army,  that  he 
published  several  works  on  military  science,  and  that  on  leaving 
the  army  he  devoted  himself  to  the  invention  of  a  steam-carriage 
to  be  run  on  common  roads. 

It  appears  from  documents  collected  by  M.  Morin  that  Cugnot 

*  "Portfeuille  du  Conservatoire  des  Arts  et  Me'tiers,"  Livraison  1,  p.  3. 


CHAP.  II.]  CUGNOrS  ENGINE.  61 

constructed  his  first  carriage  at  the  Arsenal  in  1769,  at  the  cost 
of  the  Comte  de  Saxe,  by  whom  he  was  patronized  and  liberally 
helped.  It  ran  on  three  wheels,  and  was  put  in  motion  by  an  en- 
gine composed  of  two  single-acting  cylinders,  the  pistons  of  which 
acted  alternately  on  the  single  front  wheel.  While  this  machine 
was  in  course  of  construction,  a  Swiss  officer,  named  Planta, 
brought  forward  a  similar  project;  but,  on  perceiving  that  Cug- 
not's  carriage  was  superior  to  his  own,  he  proceeded  no  farther 
with  it. 

When  Cugnot's  carriage  was  ready,  it  was  tried  in  the  presence 
of  the  Due  de  Choiseul,  the  Comte  de  Saxe,  and  other  military 
officers.  On  being  first  set  in  motion,  it  ran  against  a  stone  wall 
which  stood  in  its  way,  and  threw  it  down.  There  was  thus  no 
doubt  about  its  power,  though  there  were  many  doubts  about  its 
manageableness.  At  length  it  was  got  out  of  the  Arsenal  and 
put  upon  the  road,  when  it  was  found  that,  though  only  loaded 
with  four  persons,  it  could  not  travel  faster  than  about  two  and  a 
quarter  miles  an  hour ;  and  that,  the  size  of  the  boiler  not  being 
sufficient,  it  would  not  continue  at  work  for  more  than  twelve  or 
fifteen  minutes,  when  it  was  necessary  to  wait  until  sufficient 
steam  had  been  raised  to  enable  it  to  proceed  farther. 

The  experiment  was  looked  upon  with  great  interest,  and  ad- 
mitted to  be  of  a  very  remarkable  character ;  and,  considering 
that  it  was  a  first  attempt,  it  was  not  by  any  means  regarded  as 
unsuccessful.  As  it  was  believed  that  such  a  machine,  if  prop- 
erly proportioned,  might  be  employed  to  drag  cannon  into  the 
field  independent  of  horse-power,  the  Minister  of  War  author- 
ized Cugnot  to  proceed  with  the  construction  of  a  new  and  im- 
proved machine,  which  was  finished  and  ready  for  trial  in  the 
course  of  the  following  year.  The  new  locomotive  was  com- 
posed of  two  parts,  one  being  a  carriage  supported  on  two  wheels, 
somewhat  resembling  a  small  brewer's  cart,  furnished  with  a  seat 
for  the  driver,  while  the  other  contained  the  macliinery,  which 
was  supported  on  a  single  driving-wheel  4  ft.  2  in.  in  diameter. 
The  engine  consisted  of  a  round  copper  boiler  with  a  furnace  in- 
side provided  with  two  small  chimneys,  two  single-acting  13-in. 
brass  cylinders  communicating  with  the  boiler  by  a  steam-pipe, 
and  the  arrangements  for  communicating  the  motion  of  the  pis- 
tons to  the  driving-wheel,  together  with  the  steering-gear. 


62  EARLY  LOCOMOTIVE  MODELS.  [PART  t 


CUGNOT'8  ENGINE. 


The  two  parts  of  the  machine  were  united  by  a  movable  pin 
and  a  toothed  sector  fixed  on  the  framing  of  the  front  or  machine 
part  of  the  carriage.  When  one  of  the  pistons  descended,  the 
piston-rod  drew  with  it  a  crank,  the  catch  of  which  caused  the 
driving-wheel  to  make  a  quarter  of  a  revolution  by  means  of  the 
ratchet-wheel  fixed  on  the  axle  of  the  driving-wheel.  At  the 
same  time,  a  chain  fixed  to  the  crank  on  the  same  side  also  de- 
scended and  moved  a  lever,  the  opposite  end  of  which  was  there- 
by raised,  restoring  the  second  piston  to  its  original  position  at 
the  top  of  the  cylinder  by  the  interposition  of  a  second  chain  and 
crank.  The  piston-rod  of  the  descending  piston,  by  means  of  a 
catch,  set  other  levers  in  motion,  the  chain  fixed  to  them  turning 
a  half-way  cock  so  as  to  open  the  second  cylinder  to  the  steam 
and  the  first  to  the  atmosphere.  The  second  piston,  then  de- 
scending in  turn,  caused  the  driving-wheel  to  make  another 
quarter  revolution,  restoring  the  first  piston  to  its  original  posi- 
tion ;  and  the  process  being  repeated,  the  machine  was  thereby 
kept  in  motion.  To  enable  it  to  run  backward,  the  catch  of  the 
crank  was  arranged  in  such  a  manner  that  it  could  be  made  to 
act  either  above  or  below,  and  thereby  reverse  the  action  of  the 
machinery  on  the  driving-wheel.  It  will  thus  be  observed  that 
Cugnot's  locomotive  presented  a  simple  and  ingenious  form  of  a 
m'gh-pressure  engine ;  and,  though  of  rude  construction,  it  was  a 
highly-creditable  piece  of  work,  considering  the  time  of  its  ap- 
pearance and  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  constructed. 

Several  successful  trials  were  made  with  the  new  locomotive 
in  the  streets  of  Paris,  which  excited  no  small  degree  of  interest. 
Unhappily,  however,  an  accident  which  occurred  to  it  in  one  of 
the  trials  had  the  effect  of  putting  a  stop  to  farther  experiments. 
Turning  the  corner  of  a  street  near  the  Madeleine  one  day,  when 


CHAP.  II.]  CUGNOT'S  ENGINE.  63 

the  machine  was  running  at  a  speed  of  about  three  miles  an  hour, 
it  became  overbalanced,  and  fell  over  with  a  crash ;  after  which, 
the  running  of  the  vehicle  being  considered  dangerous,  it  was 
thenceforth  locked  up  securely  in  the  Arsenal  to  prevent  its  do- 
ing farther  mischief. 

The  merit  of  Cugnot  was,  however,  duly  recognized.  He  was 
granted  a  pension  of  300  livres,  which  continued  to  be  paid  to 
him  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution.  The  Girondist  Ro- 
land was  appointed  to  examine  the  engine  and  report  upon  it  to 
the  Convention ;  but  his  report,  which  was  favorable,  was  not 
adopted ;  on  which  the  inventor's  pension  was  stopped,  and  he 
was  left  for  a  time  without  the  means  of  living.  Some  years 
later,  Bonaparte,  on  his  return  from  Italy  after  the  peace  of 
Campo  Formio,  interested  himself  in  Cugnot's  invention,  and  ex- 
pressed a  favorable  opinion  of  his  locomotive  before  the  Acade- 
my ;  but  his  attention  was  shortly  after  diverted  from  the  sub- 
ject by  the  Expedition  to  Egypt.  Napoleon,  however,  succeed- 
ed in  restoring  Cugnot's  pension,  and  thus  soothed  his  declining 
years.  He  died  in  Paris  in  1804,  at  the  age  of  seventy-five. 
Cugnot's  locomotive  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  Museum  of  the  Con- 
servatoire des  Arts  et  Metiers  at  Paris ;  and  it  is,  without  excep- 
tion, the  most  venerable  and  interesting  of  all  the  machines  ex- 
tant connected  with  the  early  history  of  locomotion. 

While  Cugnot  was  constructing  his  first  machine  at  Paris,  one 
Francis  Moore,  a  linen-draper,  was  taking  out  a  patent  in  Lon- 
don for  moving  wheel-carriages  by  steam.  On  the  14th  of 
March,  1769,  he  gave  notice  of  a  patent  for  "  a  machine  made  of 
wood  or  metal,  and  worked  by  fire,  water,  or  air,  for  the  purpose 
of  moving  bodies  on  land  or  water,"  and  on  the  13th  of  July  fol- 
lowing he  gave  notice  of  another  "  for  machines  made  of  wood 
and  metal,  moved  by  power,  for  the  carriage  of  persons  and 
goods,  and  for  accelerating  boats,  barges,  and  other  vessels." 
But  it  does  not  appear  that  Moore  did  any  thing  beyond  lodging 
the  titles  of  his  inventions,  so  that  we  are  left  in  the  dark  as  to 
wjiat  was  their  precise  character. 

James  Watt's  friend  and  correspondent,  Dr.  Small,  of  Birming- 
ham, when  he  heard  of  Moore's  intended  project,  wrote  to  the 
Glasgow  inventor  with  the  object  of  stimulating  him  to  perfect 
his  steam-engine,  then  in  hand,  and  urging  him  to  apply  it,  among 


64  EARLY  LOCOMOTIVE  MODELS.  [PART  I. 

other  things,  to  purposes  of  locomotion.  "  I  hope  soon,"  said 
Small,  "  to  travel  in  a  fiery  chariot  of  your  invention."  Watt  re- 
plied to  the  effect  that  "  if  Linen-draper  Moore  does  not  use  my 
engines  to  drive  his  carriages,  he  can't  drive  them  by  steam.  If 
he  does,  I  will  stop  them."  But  Watt  was  still  a  long  way  from 
perfecting  his  invention.  The  steam-engine  capable  of  driving 
carriages  was  a  problem  that  remained  to  be  solved,  and  it  was  a 
problem  to  the  solution  of  which  Watt  never  fairly  applied  him- 
self. It  was  enough  for  him  to  accomplish  the  great  work  of 
perfecting  his  condensed  engine,  and  with  that  he  rested  content. 
But  Watt  continued  to  be  so  strongly  urged  by  those  about  him 
to  apply  steam-power  to  purposes  of  locomotion  that,  in  his  com- 
prehensive patent  of  the  24th  of  August,  1784,  he  included  an 
arrangement  with  that  object.  From  his  specification  we  learn 
that  he  proposed  a  cylindrical  or  globular  boiler,  protected  out- 
side by  wood  strongly  hooped  together,  with  a  furnace  inside  en- 
tirely surrounded  by  the  water  to  be  heated  except  at  the  ends. 
Two  cylinders  working  alternately  were  to  be  employed,  and  the 
pistons  working  within  them  were  to  be  moved  by  the  elastic 
force  of  the  steam ;  "  and  after  it  has  performed  its  office,"  he 
says, "  I  discharge  it  into  the  atmosphere  by  a  proper  regulating 
valve,  or  I  discharge  it  into  a  condensing  vessel  made  air-tight, 
and  formed  of  thin  plates  and  pipes  of  metal,  having  their  out- 
sides  exposed  to  the  wind ;"  the  object  of  this  latter  arrange- 
ment being  to  economize  the  water,  which  would  otherwise  be 
lost.  The  power  was  to  be  communicated  by  a  rotative  motion 
(of  the  nature  of  the  "  sun  and  planet"  arrangement)  to  the  axle 
of  one  or  more  of  the  wheels  of  the  carriage,  or  to  another  axis 
connected  with  the  axle  by  means  of  toothed  wheels ;  and  in  oth- 
er cases  he  proposed,  instead  of  the  rotative  machinery,  to  employ 
"  toothed  racks,  or  sectors  of  circles,  worked  with  reciprocating 
motion  by  the  engines,  and  acting  upon  ratched  wheels  fixed  on 
the  axles  of  the  carriage."  To  drive  a  carriage  containing  two 
persons  would,  he  estimated,  require  an  engine  with  a  cylinder  7 
in.  in  diameter,  making  sixty  strokes  per  minute  of  1  ft.  each,  and 
so  constructed  as  to  act  both  on  the  ascent  and  descent  of  the  pis- 
ton ;  and,  finally,  the  elastic  force  of  the  steam  in  the  boiler  must 
be  such  as  to  be  occasionally  equal  to  supporting  a  pillar  of  mer- 
cury 30  in.  high. 


CHAP.  II.]  WATT'S  PROPOSED  LOCOMOTIVE.  65 

Though  Watt  repeatedly  expressed  his  intention  of  construct- 
ing a  model  locomotive  after  his  specification,  it  does  not  appear 
that  he  ever  carried  it  out.  He  was  too  much  engrossed  with 
other  work ;  and,  besides,  he  never  entertained  very  sanguine 
views  as  to  the  practicability  of  road  locomotion  by  steam.  He 
continued,  however,  to  discuss  the  subject  with  his  partner  Boul- 
ton,  and  from  his  letters  we  gather  that  his  mind  continued  un- 
determined as  to  the  best  plan  to  be  pursued.  Only  four  days 
after  the  date  of  the  above  specification  (i.  e.,  on  the  28th  of  Au- 
gust, 1784)  we  find  him  communicating  his  views  on  the  subject 
to  Boulton  at  great  length,  and  explaining  his  ideas  as  to  how 
the  proposed  object  might  begt  be  accomplished.  He  first  ad- 
dressed himself  to  the  point  of  whether  80  Ibs.  was  a  sufficient 
power  to  move  a  post-chaise  on  a  tolerably  good  and  level  road 
at  four  miles  an  hour ;  secondly,  whether  8  ft.  of  boiler  surface 
exposed  to  the  fire  would  be  sufficient  to  evaporate  a  cube  foot 
of  water  per  hour  without  much  waste  of  fuel ;  thirdly,  whether 
it  would  require  steam  of  more  than  eleven  and  a  half  times  at- 
mospheric density  to  cause  the  engine  to  exert  a  power  equal  to 
6  Ibs.  on  the  inch.  "  I  think,"  he  observed,  "  the  cylinder  must 
either  be  made  larger  or  make  more  than  sixty  strokes  per  min- 
ute. As  to  working  gear,  stopping  and  backing,  with  steering 
the  carriage,  I  think  these  things  perfectly  manageable." 

"My  original  ideas  on  the  subject,"  he  continued, "  were  prior  to 
my  invention  of  these  improved  engines,  or  before  the  crank,  or 
any  other  of  the  rotative  motions  were  thought  of.  My  plan  then 
was  to  have  two  inverted  cylinders,  with  toothed  racks  instead  of 
piston-rods,  which  were  to  be  applied  to  two  ratchet-wheels  on  the 
axle-tree,  and  to  act  alternately;  and  I  am  partly  of  opinion  that  this 
method  might  be  applied  with  advantage  yet,  because  it  needs  no  fly 
and  has  some  other  conveniences.  From  what  I  have  said,  and  from 
much  more  which  a  little  reflection  will  suggest  to  you,  you  will  see 
that  without  several  circumstances  turn  out  more  favorable  than 
has  been  stated,  the  machine  will  be  clumsy  and  defective,  and  that 
it  will  cost  much  time  to  bring  it  to  any  tolerable  degree  of  perfec- 
tion, and  that  for  me  to  interrupt  the  career  of  our  business  would 
be  imprudent ;  I  even  grudge  the  time  I  have  taken  to  make  these 
comments  on  it.  There  is,  however,  another  way  in  which  much 
mechanism  might  be  saved  if  it  be  in  itself  practicable,  which  is  to 
apply  to  it  one  of  the  self-moving  rotatives,  which  has  no  regula- 

E 


(}6  EARLY  LOCOMOTIVE  MODELS.  [PART  I. 

tors,  but  turns  like  a  mill-wheel  by  the  constant  influx  and  efflux 
of  steam ;  but  this  would  not  abridge  the  size  of  the  boiler,  and  I 
am  not  sure  that  such  engines  are  practicable." 

It  will  be  observed  from  these  explanations  that  Watt's  views 
as  to  road  locomotion  were  still  crude  and  undefined ;  and,  in- 
deed, he  never  carried  them  farther.  While  he  was  thus  dis- 
cussing the  subject  with  Boulton,  William  Murdock,  one  of  the 
most  skilled  and  ingenious  workmen  of  the  Soho  firm — then  liv- 
ing at  Kedruth,  in  Cornwall — was  occupying  himself  during  his 
leisure  hours,  which  were  but  few,  in  constructing  a  model  loco- 
motive after  a  design  of  his  own.  He  had  doubtless  heard  of  the 
proposal  to  apply  steam  to  locomotion,  and,  being  a  clever  invent- 
or, he  forthwith  set  himself  to  work  out  the  problem.  The  plan 
he  pursued  was  very  simple  and  yet  efficient.  His  model  was  of 
small  dimensions,  standing  little  more  than  a  foot  high,  but  it  was 
sufficiently  large  to  demonstrate  the  soundness  of  the  principle  on 
which  it  was  constructed.  It  was  supported  on  three  wheels,  and 
carried  a  small  copper  boiler,  heat- 
ed by  a  spirit-lamp,  with  a  flue  pass- 
ing obliquely  through  it.  The  cyl- 
inder, of  £  in.  diameter  and  2  in. 
stroke,  was  fixed  in  the  top  of  the 
boiler,  the  piston-rod  being  con- 
nected with  the  vibrating  beam  at- 
tached to  the  connecting-rod  which 
worked  the  crank  of  the  drivine:- 

6ECTION  OP   MUEDOCK'S  MODEL.  O 

wheel.  I  his  little  engine  worked 

by  the  expansive  force  of  the  steam  only,  which  was  discharged 
into  the  atmosphere  after  it  had  done  its  work  of  alternately  rais- 
ing and  depressing  the  piston  in  the  cylinder. 

Mr.  Murdock's  son  informed  the  author  that  this  model  was  in- 
vented and  constructed  in  1781,  but,  from  the  correspondence  of 
Boulton  and  Watt,  we  infer  that  it  was  not  ready  for  trial  until 
1784.  The  first  experiment  with  it  was  made  in  Murdock's  own 
house  at  Eedruth,  when  it  successfully  hauled  a  model  wagon 
round  the  room— the  single  wheel  placed  in  front  of  the  engine, 
and  working  in  a  swivel  frame,  enabling  it  to  run  round  in  a 
circle. 

Another  experiment  was  made  out  of  doors,  on  which  occasion, 


CHAP.  II.]  MURDOCHS  MODEL  ENGINE.  67 

small  though  the  engine  was,  it  fairly  outran  the  speed  of  its  in- 
ventor. It  seems  that  one  night,  after  returning  from  his  duties 
at  the  Eedruth  mine,  Murdock  determined  to  try  the  working  of 
his  model  locomotive.  For  this  purpose  he  had  recourse  to  the 
walk  leading  to  the  church,  about  a  mile  from  the  town.  It  was 
rather  narrow,  and  was  bounded  on  each  side  by  high  hedges. 
The  night  was  dark,  and  Murdock  set  out  alone  to  try  his  experi- 
ment. Having  lit  his  lamp,  the  water  soon  boiled,  when  off  start- 
ed the  engine,  with  the  inventor  after  it.  Shortly  after  he  heard 
distant  shouts  of  terror.  It  was  too  dark  to  perceive  objects ;  but 
he  found,  on  following  up  the  machine,  that  the  cries  proceeded 
from  the  worthy  pastor  of  the  parish,  who,  going  toward  the  town, 
was  met  on  this  lonely  road  by  the  hissing  and  fiery  little  mon- 
ster, which  he  subsequently  declared  he  had  taken  to  be  the  Evil 
One  in  propria  persona  ! 

Watt  was  by  no  means  pleased  when  he  learned  that  Murdock 
was  giving  his  mind  to  these  experiments.  He  feared  that  it 
might  have  the  effect  of  withdrawing  him  from  the  employment 
of  the  firm,  to  which  his  services  had  become  almost  indispensa- 
ble ;  for  there  was  no  more  active,  skillful,  or  ingenious  workman 
in  all  their  concern.  Watt  accordingly  wrote  to  Boulton,  recom- 
mending him  to  advise  Murdock  to  give  up  his  locomotive-engine 
scheme ;  but,  if  he  could  not  succeed  in  that,  then,  rather  tljan 
lose  Murdock's  services,  Watt  proposed  that  he  should  be  allowed 
an  advance  of  £100  to  enable  him  to  prosecute  his  experiments, 
and  if  he  succeeded  within  a  year  in  making  an  engine  capable 
of  drawing  a  post-chaise  carrying  two  passengers  and  the  driver 
at  four  miles  an  hour,  it  was  suggested  that  he  should  be  taken 
as  partner  into  the  locomotive  business,  for  which  Boulton  and 
Watt  were  to  provide  the  necessary  capital. 

Two  years  later  (in  September,  1786)  we  find  Watt  again  ex- 
pressing his  regret  to  Boulton  that  Murdock  was  "  busying  him- 
self with  the  steam-carriage."  "  I  have  still,"  said  he, "  the  same 
opinion  concerning  it  that  I  had,  but  to  prevent  as  much  as  pos- 
sible more  fruitless  argument  about  it,  I  have  one  of  some  size 
under  hand,  and  am  resolved  to  try  if  God  will  work  a  miracle 
in  favor  of  these  carriages.  I  shall  in  some  future  letter  send 
you  the  words  of  my  specification  on  that  subject.  In  the  mean 
time  I  wish  William  could  be  brought  to  do  as  we  do,  to  mind 


68  EARLY  LOCOMOTIVE  MODELS.  [PART  I. 

the  business  in  hand,  and  let  such  as  Symington  and  Sadler  throw 
away  their  time  and  money  in  hunting  shadows."  In  a  subse- 
quent letter  Watt  expressed  his  gratification  at  finding  "  that  Wil- 
liam applies  to  his  business."  From  that  time  Murdock  as  well 
as  Watt  dropped  all  farther  speculation  on  the  subject,  and  left 
it  to  others  to  work  out  the  problem  of  the  locomotive  engine. 
Murdock's  model  remained  but  a  curious  toy,  which  he  himself 
took  pleasure  in  exhibiting  to  his  intimate  friends ;  and  though 
he  long  continued  to  speculate  about  road  locomotion,  and  was 
persuaded  of  its  practicability,  he  refrained  from  embodying  his 
ideas  of  it  in  any  more  complete  working  form. 

Symington  and  Sadler,  the  "  hunters  of  shadows"  referred  to 
by  Watt,  did  little  to  advance  the  question.  Of  Sadler  we  know 
nothing  beyond  that  in  1786  he  was  making  experiments  as  to 
the  application  of  steam-power  to  the  driving  of  wheel-carriages. 
This  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Boulton  and  Watt,  who  gave  him 
notice,  on  the  4th  of  July  of  the  same  year,  that  "  the  sole  privi- 
lege of  making  steam-engines  by  the  elastic  force  of  steam  act- 
ing on  a  piston,  with  or  without  condensation,  had  been  granted 
to  Mr.  Watt  by  Act  of  Parliament,  and  also  that  among  other 
improvements  and  applications  of  his  principle  he  hath  particu- 
larly specified  the  application  of  steam-engines  for  driving  wheel 
carriages  in  a  patent  which  he  took  out  in  the  year.  1784."  They 
accordingly  cautioned  him  against  proceeding  farther  in  the 
matter ;  and  as  we  hear  no  more  of  Sadler's  steam-carriage,  it  is 
probable  that  the  notice  had  its  effect. 

The  name  of  William  Symington  is  better  known  in  connec- 
tion with  the  history  of  steam  locomotion  by  sea.  He  was  born 
at  Leadhills,  in  Scotland,  in  1763.  His  father  was  a  practical 
mechanic,  who  superintended  the  engines  and  machinery  of  the 
Mining  Company  at  Wanlockhead,  where  one  of  Boulton  and 
Watt's  pumping-engines  was  at  work.  Young  Symington  was 
of  an  ingenious  turn  of  mind  from  his  boyhood,  and  at  an  early 
period  he  seems  to  have  conceived  the  idea  of  employing  the 
steam-engine  to  drive  wheel-carriages.  His  father  and  he  worked 
together,  and  by  the  year  1786,  when  the  son  was  only  twenty- 
three  years  of  age,  they  succeeded  in  completing  a  working  mod- 
el of  a  road  locomotive.  Mr.Meason,  the  manager  of  the  mine, 
was  so  much  pleased  with  the  model,  the  merit  of  which  princi- 


CHAP.  II.] 


SYMINGTON'S  STEAM-CARRIAGE. 


pally  belonged  to  young  Symington,  that  he  sent  him  to  Edin- 
burg  for  the  purpose  of  exhibiting  it  before  the  scientific  gentle- 
men of  that  city,  in  the  hope  that  it  might  lead,  in  some  way, 
to  his  future  advancement  in  life.  Mr.  Meason  also  allowed  the 
model  to  be  exhibited  at  his  own  house  there,  and  he  invited 
many  gentlemen  of  distinction  to  inspect  it. 


SYMINGTON'S  MODEL  BTEAM-CABBIAGE,  1786. 

The  machine  consisted  of  a  carriage  and  locomotive  behind, 
supported  on  four  wheels.  The  boiler  was  cylindrical,  communi- 
cating by  a  steam-pipe  with  the  two  horizontal  cylinders,  one  on 
each  side  of  the  engine.  When  the  piston  was  raised  by  the  ac- 
tion of  the  steam,  a  vacuum  was  produced  by  the  condensation 
of  the  steam  in  a  cold-water  tank  placed  underneath  the  engine, 
on  which  the  piston  was  again  forced  back  by  the  pressure  of  the 
atmosphere.  The  motion  was  communicated  to  the  wheels  by 
rack-rods  connected  with  the  piston-rod,  which  worked  on  each 
side  of  a  drum  fixed  on  the  hind  axle,  the  alternate  action  of 
which  rods  upon  the  tooth  and  ratchet  wheels  with  which  the 
drum  was  provided  producing  the  rotary  motion.  It  will  thus 
be  observed  that  Symington's  engine  was  partly  atmospheric  and 
partly  condensing,  the  condensation  being  effected  by  a  separate 
vessel  and  air-pump,  as  patented  by  Watt;  and  though  the  ar- 
rangement was  ingenious,  it  is  clear  that,  had  it  ever  been  brought 
into  use,  the  traction  by  means  of  such  an  engine  would  have 
been  of  the  very  slowest  kind. 

But  Symington's  engine  was  not  destined  to  be  applied  to  road 
locomotion.  He  was  completely  diverted  from  employing  it  for 


70  EARLY  LOCOMOTIVE  MODELS.  [PAST  I. 

that  purpose  by  his  connection  with  Mr.  Miller,  of  Dalswinton, 
then  engaged  in  experimenting  on  the  application  of  mechanical 
power  to  the  driving  of  his  double  paddle-boat.  The  power  of 
men  was  first  tried,  but  the  labor  was  found  too  severe ;  and  when 
Mr.  Miller  went  to  see  Symington's  model,  and  informed  the  in- 
ventor of  his  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  regular  and  effective  power 
for  driving  his  boat,  Symington — his  mind  naturally  full  of  his 
own  invention — at  once  suggested  his  steam-engine  for  the  pur- 
pose. The  suggestion  was  adopted,  and  Mr.  Miller  authorized 
him  to  proceed  with  the  construction  of  a  steam-engine  to  be 
fitted  into  his  double  pleasure  boat  on  Dalswinton  Lock,  where 
it  was  tried  in  October,  1788.  This  was  followed  by  farther  ex- 
periments, which  eventually  led  to  the  construction  of  the  Char- 
lotte Dundas  in  1801,  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  prac- 
tical steam-boat  ever  built.  |r  f 

Symington  took  out  letters  patent  in  the  same  year,  securing 
the  invention,  or  rather  the  novel  combination  of  inventions,  em- 
bodied in  his  steam-boat,  but  he  never  succeeded  in  getting  it  in- 
troduced into  practical  use.  From  the  date  of  completing  his  in- 
vention, fortune  seemed  to  run  steadily  against  him.  The  Duke 
of  Bridge  water,  who  had  ordered  a  number  of  Symington's  steam- 
boats for  his  canal,  died,  and  his  executors  countermanded  the 
order.  Symington  failed  in  inducing  any  other  canal  company 
to  make  trial  of  his  invention.  Lord  Dundas  also  took  the  Char- 
lotte Dundas  off  the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal,  where  she  had  been 
at  work,  and  from  that  time  the  vessel  was  never  more  tried. 
Symington  had  no  capital  of  his  own  to  work  upon,  and  he  seems 
to  have  been  unable  to  make  friends  among  capitalists.  The 
rest  of  his  life  was  for  the  most  part  thrown  away.  Toward  the 
close  of  it  his  principal  haunt  was  London,  amid  whose  vast  pop- 
ulation he  was  one  of  the  many  waifs  and  strays.  He  succeeded 
in  obtaining  a  grant  of  £100  from  the  Privy  Purse  in  1824,  and 
afterward  an  annuity  of  £50,  but  he  did  not  live  long  to  enjoy  it, 
for  he  died  in  March,  1831,  and  was  buried  in  the  church-yard 
of  St.  Botolph,  Aldgate,  where  there  is  not  even  a  stone  to  mark 
the  grave  of  the  inventor  of  the  first  practicable  steam-boat. 

While  the  inventive  minds  of  England  were  thus  occupied, 
those  of  America  were  not  idle.  The  idea  of  applying  steam- 
power  to  the  propulsion  of  carriages  on  land  is  said  to  nave  oc- 


CHAP.  II.]  EVANS'S  STEAM-CARRIAGE.  71 

curred  to  John  Fitch  in  1785 ;  but  he  did  not  pursue  the  idea 
"  for  more  than  a  week,"  being  diverted  from  it  by  his  scheme  of 
applying  the  same  power  to  the  propulsion  of  vessels  on  the  wa- 
ter.* About  the  same  time,  Oliver  Evans,  a  native  of  Newport, 
Delaware,  was  occupied  with  a  project  for  driving  steam-car- 
riages on  common  roads ;  and  in  1786  the  Legislature  of  Mary- 


OLIVEB  EVANS'S  MOPEL   LOCOMOTIVE. 

fc 

land  granted  him  the  exclusive  right  for  that  state.  Several 
years,  however,  passed  before  he  could  raise  the  means  for  erect- 
ing a  model  carriage,  most  of  his  friends  regarding  the  project  as 
altogether  chimerical  and  impracticable.  In  1800  or  1801,  Ev- 
ans began  a  steam-carriage  at  his  own  expense ;  but  he  had  not 
proceeded  far  with  it  when  he  altered  his  intention,  and  applied 
the  engine  intended  for  the  driving  of  a  carriage  to  the  driving 
of  a  small  grinding-mill,  in  which  it  was  found  efficient.  In 
1804  he  constructed  at  Philadelphia  a  second  engine  of  five- 
horse  power,  working  on  the  high-pressure  principle,  which  was 
placed  on  a  large  flat  or  scow,  mounted  upon  wheels.  "  This," 
says  his  biographer, "  was  considered  a  fine  opportunity  to  show 

*  This  statement  is  made  in  "  The  Life  of  John  Fitch,"  by  Thompson  Westcott, 
Philadelphia,  1857.  Mr.  Thompson  there  states  that  the  idea  of  employing  a  steam- 
engine  to  propel  carriages  on  land  occurred  to  John  Fitch  at  a  time  when,  he  avers, 
"he  was  altogether  ignorant  that  a  steam-engine  had  ever  been  invented!"  (p.  120). 
Such  a  statement  is  calculated  to  damage  the  credibility  of  the  entire  book,  in  which 
the  invention  of  the  steam-boat,  as  well  as  of  the  screw  propeller,  is  unhesitatingly 
claimed  for  John  Fitch. 


72  EARLY  LOCOMOTIVE  MODELS.  [PART  I. 

the  public  that  his  engine  could  propel  both  land  and  water  con- 
veyances. When  the  machine  was  finished,  Evans  fixed  under 
it,  in  a  rough  and  temporary  manner,  wheels  with  wooden  axle- 
trees.  Although  the  whole  weight  was  equal  to  two  hundred 
barrels  of  flour,  yet  his  small  engine  propelled  it  up  Market 
Street,  and  round  the  circle  to  the  water-works,  where  it  was 
launched  into  the  SchuylMll.  A  paddle-wheel  was  then  applied 
to  its  stern,  and  it  thus  sailed  down  that  river  to  the  Delaware,  a 
distance  of  sixteen  miles,  in  the  presence  of  thousands  of  spec- 
tators."* It  does  not,  however,  appear  that  any  farther  trial  was 
made  of  this  engine  as  a  locomotive ;  and,  having  been  dismount- 
ed and  applied  to  the  driving  of  a  small  grinding-mill,  its  em- 
ployment as  a  traveling  engine  was  shortly  forgotten. 

*  Home's  "Memoirs  of  the  Most  Eminent  American  Mechanics,"  New  York, 
1858,  p.  76. 


CHAP.  III.]  EARL  Y  RAIL  WA  YS.  73 


CHAPTER  m. 

THE   COENISH   LOCOMOTIVE MEMOIR   OF   EICHAED   TREVTTHICK. 

WHILE  the  discussion  of  steam-power  as  a  means  of  locomotion 
was  proceeding  in  England,  other  projectors  were  advocating  the 
extension  of  wagon-ways  and  railroads.  Mr.  Thomas,  of  Denton, 
near  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  read  a  paper  before  the  Philosophical 
Society  of  that  town  in  1800,  in  which  he  urged  the  laying  down 
of  railways  throughout  the  country,  on  the  principle  of  the  coal 
wagon- ways,  for  the  general  carriage  of  goods  and  merchandise ; 
and  Dr.  James  Anderson,  of  Edinburg,  about  the  same  time  pub- 
lished his  "  Recreations  of  Agriculture,"  wherein  he  recommend- 
ed that  railways  should  be  laid  along  the  principal  turnpike-roads, 
and  worked  by  horse-power,  which,  he  alleged,  would  have  the 
effect  of  greatly  reducing  the  cost  of  transport,  and  thereby  stim- 
ulating all  branches  of  industry. 

Railways  were  indeed  already  becoming  adopted  in  places 
where  the  haulage  of  heavy  loads  was  for  short  distances ;  and 
in  some  cases  lines  were  laid  down  of  considerable  length.  One 
of  the  first  of  such  lines  constructed  under  the  powers  of  an  Act 
of  Parliament  was  the  Cardiff  and  Merthyr  railway  or  tram-road, 
about  twenty-seven  miles  in  length,  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
iron-works  of  Plymouth,  Pen-y-darran,  and  Dowlais,  all  in  South 
Wales,  the  necessary  Act  for  which  was  obtained  in  1794.  An- 
other, the  Sirhoway  railroad,  about  twenty-eight  miles  in  length, 
was  constructed  under  the  powers  of  an  act  obtained  in  1801 ;  it 
accommodated  the  Tredegar  and  Sirhoway  Iron-works  and  the 
Trevill  Lime-works,  as  well  as  the  collieries  along  its  route. 

In  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  London  there  was  another 
very  early  railroad,  the  Wandsworth  and  Croydon  tram- way,  about 
ten  miles  long,  which  was  afterward  extended  southward  to  Mers- 
tham,  in  Surrey,  for  about  eight  miles  more,  making  a  total  length 


74  MEMOIR  OF  RICHARD  TREVITHICK.  [PART  I. 

of  nearly  eighteen  miles.  The  first  act  for  the  purpose  of  au- 
thorizing the  construction  of  this  road  was  obtained  in  1800. 

All  these  lines  were,  however,  worked  by  horses,  and  in  the  case 
of  the  Croydon  and  Merstham  line,  donkeys  shared  in  the  work, 
which  consisted  chiefly  in  the  haulage  of  stone,  coal,  and  lime. 
Ko  proposal  had  yet  been  made  to  apply  the  power  of  steam  as 
a  substitute  for  horses  on  railways,  nor  were  the  rails  then  laid 
down  of  a  strength  sufficient  to  bear  more  than  a  loaded  wagon 
of  the  weight  of  three  tons,  or,  at  the  very  outside,  of  three  and  a 
quarter  tons. 

It  was,  however,  observed  from  the  first  that  there  was  an  im- 
mense saving  in  the  cost  of  haulage ;  and  on  the  day  of  opening 
the  southern  portion  of  the  Merstham  Eailroad  in  1805,  a  train 
of  twelve  wagons  laden  with  stone,  weighing  in  all  thirty-eight 
tons,  was  drawn  six  miles  in  an  hour  by  one  horse,  with  apparent 
ease,  down  an  incline  of  1  in  120 ;  and  this  was  bruited  about  as 
an  extraordinary  feat,  highly  illustrative  of  the  important  uses  of 
the  new  iron-ways. 

About  the  same  time,  the  subject  of  road  locomotion  was  again 
brought  into  prominent  notice  by  an  important  practical  experi- 
ment conducted  in  a  remote  corner  of  the  kingdom.  The  exper- 
imenter was  a  young  man,  then  obscure,  but  afterward  famous, 
who  may  be  fairly  regarded  as  the  inventor  of  the  railway  "loco- 
motive, if  any  single  individual  be  entitled  to  that  appellation. 
This  was  Richard  Trevithick,  a  person  of  extraordinary  mechan- 
ical skill  but  of  marvelous  ill  fortune,  who,  though  the  inventor 
of  many  ingenious  contrivances,  and  the  founder  of  the  fortunes 
of  many,  himself  died  in  cold  obstruction  and  in  extreme  poverty, 
leaving  behind  him  nothing  but  his  great  inventions  and  the  rec- 
ollection of  his  genius. 

Eichard  Trevithick  was  born  on  the  13th  of  April,  1771,  in  the 
parish  of  Illogan,  a  few  miles  west  of  Redruth,  in  Cornwall.  In 
the  immediate  neighborhood  rises  Castle-Carn-brea,  a  rocky  emi- 
nence, supposed  by  Borlase  to  have  been  the  principal  seat  of 
Druidic  worship  in  the  West  of  England.  The  hill  commands 
an  extraordinary  view  over  one  of  the  richest  mining  fields  of 
Cornwall,  from  Chacewater  and  Redruth  to  Camborne. 

Trevithick's  father  acted  as  purser  at  several  of  the  mines. 
Though  a  man  in  good  position  and  circumstances,  he  does  not 


CHAP.  III.]  TREVITHICK' S  BOYHOOD.  75 

seem  to  have  taken  much  pains  with  his  son's  education.  Being 
an  only  child,  he  was  very  much  indulged — among  other  things, 
in  his  dislike  for  the  restraints  and  discipline  of  school ;  and  he 
was  left  to  wander  about  among  the  mines,  spending  his  time  in 
the  engine-rooms,  picking  up  information  about  pumping-engines 
and  mining  machinery. 

His  father,  observing  the  boy's  strong  bent  toward  mechanics, 
placed  him  for  a  time  as  pupil  with  William  Murdock,  while  the 
latter  lived  at  Kedruth  superintending  the  working  and  repairs 
of  Boulton  and  Watt's  pumping-engines  in  that  neighborhood. 
During  his  pupilage,  young  Trevithick  doubtless  learned  much 
from  that  able  mechanic.  It  is  probable  that  he  got  his  first  idea 
of  the  high-pressure  road  locomotive  which  he  afterward  con- 
structed from  Murdock's  ingenious  little  model  above  described, 
the  construction  and  action  of  which  must  have  been  quite  famil- 
iar to  him,  for  no  secret  was  ever  made  of  it,  and  its  perform- 
ances were  often  exhibited. 

Many  new  pumping-engines  being  in  course  of  erection  in  the 
neighborhood  about  that  time,  there  was  an  unusual  demand  for 
engineers,  which  it  was  found  difficult  to  supply;  and  young 
Trevithick,  whose  skill  was  acknowledged,  had  no  difficulty  in 
getting  an  appointment.  The  father  was  astonished  at  his  boy's 
presumption  (as  he  supposed  it  to  be)  in  undertaking  such  a  re- 
sponsibility, and  he  begged  the  mine  agents  to  reconsider  their 
decision.  But  the  result  showed  that  they  were  justified  in  mak- 
ing the  appointment ;  for  young  Trevithick,  though  he  had  not 
yet  attained  his  majority,  proved  fully  competent  to  perform  the 
duties  devolving  upon  him  as  engineer. 

So  long  as  Boulton  and  Watt's  patent  continued  to  run,  con- 
stant attempts  were  made  in  Cornwall  and  elsewhere  to  upset  it. 
Their  engines  had  cleared  the  mines  of  water,  and  thereby  rescued 
the  mine  lords  from  ruin,  but  it  was  felt  to  be  a  great  hardship 
that  they  should  have  to  pay  for  the  right  to  use  them.  They 
accordingly  stimulated  the  ingenuity  of  the  local  engineers  to 
contrive  an  engine  that  should  answer  the  same  purpose,  and  en- 
able them  to  evade  making  any  farther  payments  to  Boulton  and 
Watt.  The  first  to  produce  an  engine  that  seemed  likely  to  an- 
swer the  purpose  was  Jonathan  Hornblower,  who  had  been  em- 
ployed in  erecting  Watt's  engines  in  Cornwall.  After  him  one 


76  MEMOIR  OF  RICHARD  TREVITHICK.  [PART  I. 

Edward  Bull,  who  had  been  first  a  stoker  and  then  an  assistant- 
tender  of  Watt's  engines,  turned  out  another  pumping-engine, 
which  promised  to  prove  an  equally  safe  evasion  of  the  existing 
patent.  But  Boulton  and  Watt  having  taken  the  necessary-  steps 
to  defend  their  right,  several  actions  were  tried,  in  which  they 
proved  successful,  and  then  the  mine  lords  were  compelled  to  dis- 
gorge. When  they  found  that  Hornblower  could  be  of  no  far- 
ther use  to  them,  they  abandoned  him — threw  him  away  like  a 
sucked  orange ;  and  shortly  after  we  find  him  a  prisoner  for  debt 
in  the  King's  Bench,  almost  in  a  state  of  starvation.  Nor  do  we 
hear  any  thing  more  of  Edward  Bull  after  the  issue  of  the  Boul- 
ton  and  Watt  trial. 

Like  the  other  Cornish  engineers,  young  Trevithick  took  an 
active  part  from  the  first  in  opposing  the  Birmingham  patent,  and 
he  is  said  to  have  constructed  several  engines,  with  the  assistance 
of  William  Bull  (formerly  an  erector  of  Watt's  machines),  with 
the  object  of  evading  it.  These  engines  are  said  to  have  been 
highly  creditable  to  their  makers,  working  to  the  entire  satisfac- 
tion of  the  mine-owners.  The  issue  of  the  Watt  trial,  however, 
which  declared  all  such  engines  to  be  piracies,  brought  to  an  end 
for  a  time  a  business  which  would  otherwise  have  proved  a  very 
profitable  one,  and  Trevithick's  partnership  with  Bull  then  came 
to  an  end. 

While  carrying  on  his  business,  Trevithick  had  frequent  occa- 
sion to  visit  Mr.  Harvey's  iron  foundery  at  Hayle,  then  a  small 
work,  but  now  one  of  the  largest  in  the  West  of  England,  the 
Cornish  pumping-engines  turned  out  by  Harvey  and  Co.  being 
the  very  best  of  their  kind.  During  these  visits  Trevithick  be- 
came acquainted  with  the  various  members  of  Mr.  Harvey's  fam- 
ily, and  in  course  of  time  he  contracted  an  engagement  with  one 
of  his  daughters,  Miss  Jane  Harvey,  to  whom  he  was  married  in 
November,  1797. 

A  few  years  later  we  find  Trevithick  engaged  in  partnership 
with  his  cousin,  Andrew  Vivian,  also  an  engineer.  They  carried 
on  their  business  of  engine-making  at  Camborne,  a  mining  town 
situated  in  the  midst  of  the  mining  district,  a  few  miles  south  of 
Redruth.  Watt's  patent-right  expired  in  1800,  and  from  that 
time  the  Cornish  engineers  were  free  to  make  engines  after  their 
own  methods.  Trevithick  was  not  content  to  follow  in  the  beat- 


CHAP.  III.]  HIS  STEAM-CARRIAGE.  77 

en  paths,  but,  being  of  a  highly  speculative  turn,  he  occupied  him- 
self in  contriving  various  new  methods  of  employing  steam  with 
the  object  of  economizing  fuel  and  increasing  the  effective  power 
of  the  engine. 

From  an  early  period  he  entertained  the  idea  of  making  the 
expansive  force  of  steam  act  directly  on  both  sides  of  the  piston 
on  the  high-pressure  principle,  and  thus  getting  rid  of  the  process 
of  condensation  as  in  Watt's  engines.  Although  Cugnot  had  em- 
ployed high-pressure  steam  in  his  road  locomotive,  and  Murdock 
.  in  his  model,  and  although  Watt  had  distinctly  specified  the  ac- 
tion of  steam  at  high-pressure  as  well  as  low  in  his  patents  of 
1769,  1782,  and  1784,  the  idea  was  not  embodied  in  any  practi- 
cable working  engine  until  the  subject  was  taken  in  hand  by  Trev- 
ithick.  The  results  of  his  long  and  careful  study  were  embodied 
in  the  patent  which  he  took  out  in  1802,  in  his  own  and  Yivian's 
name,  for  an  improved  steam-engine,  and  "  the  application  there- 
of for  driving  carnages  and  for  other  purposes." 

The  arrangement  of  Trevithick's  engine  was  exceedingly  in- 
genious. It  exhibited  a  beautiful  simplicity  of  parts ;  the  ma- 
chinery was  arranged  in  a  highly  effective  form,  uniting  strength 
with  solidity  and  portability,  and  enabling  the  power  of  steam  to 
be  employed  with  very  great  rapidity,  economy,  and  force.  Watt's 
principal  objection  to  using  high-pressure  steam  consisted  in  the 
danger  to  which  the  boiler  was  exposed  of  being  burst  by  inter- 
nal praesure.  In  Trevithick's  engine,  this  was  avoided  by  using 
a  cylindrical  wrought-iron  boiler,  being  the  form  capable  of  pre- 
senting the  greatest  resistance  to  the  expansive  force  of  steam. 
Boilers  of  this  kind  were  not,  however,  new.  Oliver  Evans,  of 
Delaware,  had  made  use  of  them  in  his  high-pressure  engines 
prior  to  the  date  of  Trevithick's  patent ;  and,  as  Evans  did  not 
claim  the  cylindrical  boiler,  it  is  probable  that  the  invention  was 
in  use  before  his  time.  Nevertheless,  Trevithick  had  the  merit 
of  introducing  the  round  boilers  into  Cornwall,  where  they  are 
still  known  as  "  Trevithick  boilers."  The  saving  in  fuel  effected 
by  their  use  was  such  that  in  1812  the  Messrs.  Williams,  of  Scor- 
rier,  made  Trevithick  a  present  of  £300,  in  acknowledgment  of 
the  benefits  arising  to  their  mines  from  that  source  alone. 

Trevithick's  steam-carriage  was  the  most  compact  and  hand- 
some vehicle  of  the  kind  that  had  yet  been  invented,  and,  indeed, 


78  MEMOIR  OF  RICHARD  TREVITHICK.  [PART  I. 

as  regards  arrangement,  it  has  scarcely  to  this  day  been  surpass- 
ed. It  consisted  of  a  carriage  capable  of  accommodating  some 
half-dozen  passengers,  underneath  which  was  the  engine  and  ma- 
chinery inclosed,  about  the  size  of  an  orchestra  drum,  the  whole 
being  supported  on  four  wheels-t-two  in  front,  by  which  it  was 
guided.,  and  two  behind,  by  which  it  was  driven.  The  engine 
had  but  one  cylinder.  The  piston-rod  outside  the  cylinder  was 
double,  and  drove  a  cross-piece,  working  in  guides,  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  cranked  axle  to  the  cylinder,  the  crank  of  the 
axle  revolving  between  the  double  parts  of  the  piston-rod. 
Toothed  wheels  were  attached  to  this  axle,  which  worked  into 
other  toothed  wheels  fixed  on  the  axle  of  the  driving-wheels. 
The  steam-cocks  were  opened  and  shut  by  a  connection  with  the 
crank-axle ;  and  the  force-pump,  with  which  the  boiler  was  sup- 
plied with  water,  was  also  worked  from  it,  as  were  the  bellows  to 
blow  the  fire  and  thereby  keep  up  the  combustion  in  the  furnace. 

The  specification  clearly  alludes  to  the  use  of  the  engine  on 
railroads  as  follows :  "  It  is  also  to  be  noticed  that  we  do  occa- 
sionally, or  in  certain  cases,  make  the  external  periphery  of  the 
wheels  uneven  by  projecting  heads  of  nails  or  bolts,  or  cross 
grooves  or  fittings  to  railroads  where  required,  and  that  in  cases 
of  hard  pull  we  cause  a  lever,  belt,  or  claw  to  project  through  the 
rim  of  one  or  both  of  the  said  wheels,  so  as  to  take  hold  of  the 
ground,  but  that,  in  general,  the  ordinary  structure  or  figure  of 
the  external  surface  of  those  wheels  will  be  found  to  answer  the 
intended  purpose." 

The  specification  also  shows  the  application  of  the  high-press- 
ure engine  on  the  same  principle  to  the  driving  of  a  sugar-mill, 
or  for  other  purposes  where  a  fixed  power  is  required,  dispensing 
with  condenser,  cistern,  air-pump,  and  cold-water  pump.  In  the 
year  1803,  a  small  engine  of  this  kind  was  erected  after  Trevi- 
thick's  plan  at  Marazion,  which  worked  by  steam  of  at  least  30 
Ibs.  on  the  inch  above  atmospheric  pressure,  and  gave  much  sat- 
isfaction. 

The  first  experimental  steam-carriage  was  constructed  by  Trev- 
ithick  and  Vivian  in  their  workshops  at  Camborne  in  1803,  and 
was  tried  by  them  on  the  public  road  adjoining  the  town,  as  well 
as  in  the  street  of  the  town  itself.  John  Petherick,  a  native  of 
Camborne,  who  was  alive  in  1858,  stated  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Ed- 


CHAP.  III.]  HIS  STEAM-CARRIAGE.  79 

ward  Williams  that  he  well  remembered  seeing  the  engine,  work- 
ed by  Mr.  Trevithick  himself,  come  through  the  place,  to  the 
great  wonder  of  the  inhabitants.  He  says, "  The  experiment  was 
satisfactory  only  as  long  as  the  steam  pressure  could  be  kept  up. 
During  that  continuance  Trevithick  called  upon  the  people  to 
'  jump  up,'  so  as  to  create  a  load  on  the  engine ;  and  it  soon  be- 
came covered  with  men,  which  did  not  seem  to  make  any  differ- 
ence to  the  power  or  speed  so  long  as  the  steam  was  kept  up. 
This  was  sought  to  be  done  by  the  application  of  a  cylindrical 
horizontal  bellows  worked  by  the  engine  itself ;  but  the  attempt 
to  keep  up  the  power  of  the  steam  for  any  considerable  time 
proved  a  failure." 

Trevithick,  however,  made  several  alterations  in  the  engine 
which  had  the  effect  of  improving  it,  and  its  success  was  such 
that  he  determined  to  take  it  to  London  and  exhibit  it  there  as 
the  most  recent  novelty  in  steam  mechanism.  It  was  successfully 
run  by  road  from  Camborne  to  Plymouth,  a  distance  of  about 
ninety  miles.  At  Plymouth  it  was  shipped  for  London,  where 
it  shortly  after  arrived  in  safety,  and  excited  considerable  curi- 
osity. It  was  run  on  the  waste  ground  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
present  Bethlehem  Hospital,  as  well  as  on  Lord's  cricket-ground. 
There  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  Mr.  Davies  Gilbert,  and  other  scien- 
tific gentlemen  inspected  the  machine  and  rode  upon  it.  Sever- 
al of  them  took  the  steering  of  the  carriage  by  turns,  and  they 
expressed  their  satisfaction  with  the  mechanism  by  which  it  was 
directed.  Sir  Humphry,  writing  to  a  friend  in  Cornwall,  said, 
"  I  shall  soon  hope  to  hear  that  the  roads  of  England  are  the 
haunts  of  Captain  Trevithick's  dragons — a  characteristic  name." 
After  the  experiment  at  Lord's,  the  carriage  was  run  along  the 
Xew-road,  and  down  Gray's-Inn  Lane,  to  the  premises  of  a  car- 
riage-builder in  Long  Acre.  To  show  the  adaptability  of  the  en- 
gine for  fixed  uses,  Trevithick  had  it  taken  from  the  carriage  on 
the  day  after  this  trial  and  removed  to  the  shop  of  a  cutler, 
where  he  applied  it  with  success  to  the  driving  of  the  machinery. 

The  steam-carriage  shortly  became  the  talk  of  the  town,  and 
the  public  curiosity  being  on  the  increase,  Trevithick  resolved  on 
inclosing  a  piece  of  ground  on  the  site  of  the  present  Euston  sta- 
tion of  the  London  and  Northwestern  Railway,  and  admitting 
persons  to  see  the  exhibition  of  his  engine  at  so  much  a  head. 


80  MEMOIR^-BF  RICHARD  TREVITHICK.  [PART  I. 

He  had  a  tram-road  laid  down  in  an  elliptical  form  within  the 
inclosure,  and  the  carriage  was  run  round  it  on  the  rails  in  the 
sight  of  a  great  number  of  spectators.  On  the  second  day  anoth- 
er crowd  collected  to  see  the  exhibition,  but,  for  what  reason  is 
not  know^i,  although  it  is  said  to  have  been  through  one  of  Trev- 
ithick's  freaks  of  temper,  the  place  was  closed  and  the  engine  re- 
moved. It  is,  however,  not  improbable  that  the  inventor  had 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  state  of  the  roads  at  that  time 
was  such  as  to  preclude  its  coming  into  general  use  for  purposes 
of  ordinary  traffic. 

While  the  steam-carriage  was  being  exhibited,  a  gentleman  was 
laying  heavy  wagers  as  to  the  weight  which  could  be  hauled  by 
a  single  horse  on  the  Wandsworth  and  Croydon  iron  tram- way ; 
and  the  number  and  weight  of  wagons  drawn  by  the  horse  were 
something  surprising.  Trevithick  very  probably  put  the  two 
things  together — the  steam-horse  and  the  iron-way — and  kept  the 
performance  in  mind  when  he  proceeded  to  construct  his  second 
or  railway  locomotive.  In  the  mean  time,  having  dismantled  his 
steam-carriage,  sent  back  the  phaeton  to  the  coach-builder  to 
whom  it  belonged,  and  sold  the  little  engine  which  had  worked 
the  machine,  he  returned  to  Camborne  to  carry  on  his  business. 
In  the  course  of  the  year  1803  he  went  to  Pen-y-darran,  in  South 
Wales,  to  erect  a  forge  engine  for  the  iron-works  there ;  and, 
when  it  was  finished,  he  began  the  erection  of  a  railway  locomo- 
tive— the  first  ever  constructed.  There  were  already,  as  above 
stated,  several  lines  of  rail  laid  down  in  the  district  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  the  coal  and  iron  works.  That  between  Mer- 
thyr  Tydvil  and  Cardiff  was  the  longest  and  most  important,  and 
it  had  been  at  work  for  some  years.  It  had  probably  occurred 
to  Trevithick  that  here  was  a  fine  opportunity  for  putting  to  prac- 
tical test  the  powers  of  the  locomotive,  and  he  proceeded  to  con- 
struct one  accordingly  in  the  workshops  at  Pen-y-darran. 

This  first  railway  locomotive  was  finished  and  tried  upon  the 
Merthyr  tram-road  on  the  aist  of  February,  1804.  It  had  a  cy- 
lindrical wrought-iron  boiler  with  flat  ends.  The  furnace  and 
flue  were  inside  the  boiler,  the  flue  returning,  having  its  exit  at 
the  same  end  at  which  it  entered,  so  as  to  increase  the  heating 
surface. ,  The  cylinder,  4f  in.  in  diameter,  was  placed  horizontal- 
ly in  the  end  of  the  boiler,  and  the  waste  steam  was  thrown  into 


CHAP.  III.] 


TREVITHICK'S  TRAM- 


the  stack.  The  wheels  were  worked  in  the  same  manner  as  in 
the  carriage  engine  already  described ;  and  a  fly-wheel  was  add- 
ed on  one  side,  to  secure  a  continuous  rotary  motion  at  the  end 
of  each  stroke  of  the  piston.  The  pressure  of  the  steam  was 
about  40  Ibs.  on  the  inch.  The  engine  ran  upon  four  wheels, 
coupled  by  cog-wheels,  and  those  who  remember  the  engine  say 
that  the  four  wheels  were  smooth. 


TBEVITIIICK'8  IHGH-PKE88FKE   TEAM-ENGINE. 


On  the  first  trial,  this  engine  drew  for  a  distance  of  nine  miles 
ten  tons  of  bar  iron,  together  with  the  necessary  carriages,  water, 
and  fuel,  at  the  rate  of  five  and  a  half  miles  an  hour.  |  Rees  Jones, 
an  old  engine-fitter,  who  helped  to  erect  the  engine,  and  was  alive 
in  1858,  gave  Mr.  Menelaus  the  following  account  of  its  perform- 
ances :  "  When  the  engine  was  finished,  she  was  used  for  bring- 
ing down  metal  from  the  old  forge.  She  worked  very  well ;  but 
frequently,  from  her  weight,  broke  the  tram-plates,  and  also  the 
hooks  between  the  trams.  After  working  for  some  time  in  this 
way,  she  took  a  journey  of  iron  from  Pen-y-darran  down  the 
Basin  Road,  upon  which  road  she  was  intended  to  work.  On  the 
journey  she  broke  a  great  many  of  the  tram-plates ;  and,  before 
reaching  the  Basin,  she  ran  off  the  road,  and  was  brought  back  to 
Pen-y-darran  by  horses.  The  engine  was  never  used  as  a  loco- 
motive after  this ;  but  she  was  used  as  a  stationary  engine,  and 
worked  in  this  way  for  several  years." 

F 


82 


MEMOIR  OF  RICHARD  TREVITHICK.  [PART  I. 


So  far  as  the  locomotive  was  concerned  it  was  a  remarkable 
success.  The  defect  lay  not  in  the  engine  so  much  as  in  the  road. 
This  was  formed  of  plate-rails  of  cast  iron,  with  a  guiding  flange 
upon  the  rail  instead  of  on  the  engine  wheels,  as  in  the  modern 
locomotive.  Tlie  rails  were  also  of  a  very  weak  form,  consider- 
ing the  quantity  of  iron  in  them ;  and,  though  they  were  suffi- 
cient to  bear  the  loaded  wagons  mounted  upon  small  wheels,  as 
ordinarily  drawn  along  them  by  horses,  they  were  found  quite 
insufficient  to  bear  the  weight  of  Trevithick's  engine.  To  relay 
the  road  of  sufficient  strength  would  have  involved  a  heavy  out- 
lay, which  the  owners  were  unwilling  to  incur,  not  yet  perceiving 
the  advantage,  in  an  economical  point  of  view,  of  employing  en- 
gine in  lieu  of  horse  power.  The  locomotive  was  accordingly 
taken  off  the  road,  and  the  experiment,  successful  though  it  had 
been,  was  brought  to  an  end. 

Trevithick  had,  however,  by  means  of  his  Pen-y-darran  engine, 
in  a  great  measure  solved  the  problem  of  steam  locomotion  on 
railways.  He  had  produced  a  compact  engine,  working  on  the 
high-pressure  principle,  capable  of  carrying  fuel  and  water  suffi- 
cient for  a  journey  of  considerable  length,  and  of  drawing  loaded 
wagons  at  five  and  a  half  miles  an  hour.  Pie  had  shown  by  his 
smooth-wheeled  locomotive  that  the  weight  of  the  engine  had 
given  sufficient  adhesion-  for  the  haulage  of  the  load.  He  had 
discharged  the  steam  into  the  chimney,  though  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  increasing  the  draught,  as  he  employed  bellows  for  that 
purpose.  It  appears,  however,  that  Trevithick's  friend,  Mr.  Da- 
vies  Gilbert,  afterward  President  of  the  Royal  Society,  especially 
noticed  the  effect  of  discharging  the  waste  steam  into  the  chim- 
ney of  the  Pen-y-darran  engine.  He  observed  that  when  the  en- 
gine moved,  at  each  puff  the  fire  brightened,  while  scarcely  any 
visible  steam  or  smoke  came  from  the  chimney. 

Mr.  Gilbert  published  the  result  of  his  observations  in  "Nich- 
olson's Journal"  for  September,  1805,  and  the  attention  of  Mr. 
Nicholson,  the  editor,  having  thereby  been  called  to  the  subject, 
he  proceeded  to  make  a  series  of  experiments,  the  result  of  which 
was  that  in  1806  he  took  out  a  patent  for  a  steam-blasting  appa- 
ratus, by  which  he  proposed  to  apply  high-pressure  steam  to  force 
along  currents  of  air  for  various  useful  purposes,  including  the 
urging  of  furnace  and  other  fires.  It  is  thus  obvious  that  the 


CHAP.  III.]  TAKES  A  BALLASTING  CONTRACT.  83 

principle  of  the  blast-pipe  was  known  to  both  Gilbert  and  Nich- 
olson at  this  early  period ;  but  it  is  somewhat  remarkable  that 
Trevithick  himself  should  have  remained  skeptical  as  to  its  use, 
for  as  late  as  1815  we  find  him  taking  out  a  patent,  in  which, 
among  other  improvements,  he  included  a  method  of  urging  his 
fire  by  fanners,  similar  to  a  winnowing  machine. 

In  the  mean  time  Trevithick  occupied  himself  in  carrying  on 
the  various  business  of  a  general  engineer,  and  was  ready  to  em- 
bark in  any  enterprise  likely  to  give  scope  for  his  inventive  skill. 
In  whatever  work  he  was  employed,  he  was  sure  to  introduce  new 
methods  and  arrangements,  if  not  new  inventions.  He  was  full 
of  speculative  enthusiasm,  a  great  theorist,  and  yet  an  indefatiga- 
ble experimenter.  At  the  beginning  of  1806 — the  year  after  the 
locomotive  had  been  taken  off  the  Merthyr  Tydvil  tram-road — he 
made  arrangements  for  entering  into  a  contract  for  ballasting  all 
the  shipping  in  the  Thames.  At  the  end  of  a  letter  written  by 
him  on  the  18th  of  February  in  that  year  to  Da  vies  Gilbert,  re- 
specting a  puffer  engine,  he  said, "  I  am  about  to  enter  into  a  con- 
tract with  the  Trinity  Board  for  lifting  up  ballast  out  of  the  bot- 
tom of  the  Thames  for  all  the  shipping.  The  first  quantity  stated 
was  300,000  tons  a  year,  but  now  they  state  500,000  tons.  I  am 
to  do  nothing  but  wind  up  the  chain  for  §d.  per  ton,  which  is  now 
done  by  men.  They  never  lift  it  above  twenty-five  feet  high — a 
man  will  now  get  up  ten  tons  for  la.  My  engine  at  Dalcoath 
has  lifted  about  100  tons  that  height  with  one  bushel  of  coals.  I 
have  two  engines  already  finished  for  the  purpose,  and  shall  be 
in  town  in  about  fifteen  days  for  to  set  them  to  work.  They  pro- 
pose to  engage  with  me  for  twenty-one  years."*  The  contract  was 
not,  however,  entered  into.  Trevithick  quarreled  with  the  capital- 
ists who  had  found  the  money  for  the  trials,  and  the  "  Blazer"  and 
"  Plymouth,"  the  vessels  in  which  his  engines  and  machinery  had 
been  fitted,  fell  into  other  hands. 

Trevithick,  nevertheless,  seems  to  have  been  on  the  highway  to 
fortune,  for,  at  the  beginning  of  1806,  he  had  received  orders  for 
nine  engines  in  one  month,  all  for  Cornwall ;  and  he  expected 
orders  for  four  others.  He  had  also  in  view  the  construction  of 
a  railway ;  but  nothing  came  of  this  project.  More  hopeful  still, 
as  regarded  immediate  returns,  was  the  Cornish  engine  business, 

*  Weale's  "  Papers  on  Engineering,"  vol.  i.,  "  On  the  Dredging  Machine,"  p.  7. 


84:  MEMOIR  OF  RICHARD  TREVITHICK.  [PAST  I. 

which  presented  a  very  wide  field.  Now  that  the  trade  had  been 
thrown  open  by  the  expiry  of  Boulton  and  Watt's  patent,  compe- 
tition had  sprung  up,  and  many  new  makers  and  inventors  of  en- 
gines were  ready  to  supply  the  demand. 

Among  the  most  prominent  of  these  were  Trevithick  and  Woolf. 
Trevithick  was  the  most  original  and  speculative,  Woolf  the  most 
plodding  and  practical,  and  the  most  successful.  Trevithick's  in- 
genuity exhibited  itself  in  his  schemes  for  working  Boulton  and 
Watt's  pumping-engine  by  high-pressure  steam,  by  means  of  his 
cylindrical  wrought -iron  boiler.  He  proposed  to  expand  the 
steam  down  to  low  pressure  previous  to  condensation,  thereby  an- 
ticipating by  many  years  the  Cornish  engine  now  in  use.  The 
suggestion  was  not,  however,  then  acted  on,  and  he  fell  back  on 
his  original  design  of  a  simple  non-condensing  high-pressure  en- 
gine. One  of  these  was  erected  at  Dalcoath  mine  to  draw  the 
ores  there.  It  was  called  "  the  puffer"  by  the  mining  people,  from 
its  puffing  the  steam  direct  into  the  air;  but  its  performances  did 
not  compare  favorably  with  those  of  the  ordinary  condensing 
engines  of  Boulton  and  Watt,  and  the  engine  did  not  come  into 
general  use. 

Trevithick  was  not  satisfied  to  carry  on  a  prosperous  engine 
business  in  Cornwall.  Camborne  was  too  small  for  him,  and  the 
Cornish  mining  districts  presented  too  limited  a  field  for  his  am- 
bitious spirit.  So  he  came  to  London,  the  Patent-office  drawing 
him  as  the  loadstone  does  the  needle.  In  1808  he  took  out  two 
patents,  one  for  "  certain  machinery  for  towing,  driving,  or  forcing 
and  discharging  ships  and  other  vessels  of  their  cargoes,"  and  the 
other  for  "  a  new  method  of  stowing  cargoes  of  ships."  In  1809 
he  took  out  another  patent  for  constructing  docks,  ships,  etc.,  and 
propelling  vessels. 

In  these  patents,  Trevithick  was  associated  with  one  Kobert 
Dickinson,  of  Great  Queen  Street,  but  his  name  stands  first  in 
the  specification,  wherein  he  describes  himself  as  "  of  Eother- 
hithe,  in  the  county  of  Surrey,  engineer."  By  the  first  of  these 
patents  he  proposed  to  tow  vessels  by  means  of  a  rowing  wheel 
shaped  like  an  undershot  water-wheel  furnished  with  floats  placed 
vertically  in  a  box,  and  worked  by  a  steam-engine,  which  he  also 
proposed  to  employ  in  the  loading  and  unloading  of  the  vessel, 
but  it  is  not  known  that  the  plan  was  ever  introduced  into  prac- 


CHAP.  III.]  THE  THAMES  TUNNEL.  85 

tical  use.  The  patent  of  1809  included  a  floating  dock  or  caisson 
made  of  wrought-iron  plates,  in  which  a  ship  might  be  docked 
while  afloat,  and,  after  the  water  had  been  pumped  out  of  the 
caisson,  repaired  without  moving  her  stores,  masts,  or  furniture. 
This  invention  has  since  been  carried  out  in  practice  by  the 
Messrs.  Rennie  in  the  floating  iron  dock  which  they  have  recent- 
ly constructed  for  the  Spanish  government.  Another  invention 
included  in  the  specification  was  the  construction  of  merchant 
and  war  ships  of  wrought-iron  plates  strongly  riveted  together, 
with  their  decks  supported  by  wrought-iron  beams,  and  the  masts, 
bowsprits,  and  booms  also  of  tubular  wrought  iron,  thereby  an- 
ticipating by  many  years  the  form  and  structure  of  vessels  now 
in  common  use. 

While  Trevithick  lived  at  Rotherhithe,  he  entered  upon  a  re- 
markable enterprise — no  less  than  the  construction  of  a  tunnel 
under  the  Thames — a  work  which  was  carried  out  with  so  much 
difficulty  by  Sir  Isambard  Brunei  some  twenty  years  later.  Sev- 
eral schemes  had  been  proposed  at  different  times  for  connect- 
ing the  two  banks  of  the  river  by  an  underground  communica- 
tion. As  early  as  1798,  Ralph  Dodd  suggested  a  tunnel  under 
the  Thames  between  Gravesend  and  Tilbury,  and  in  1802  Mr. 
Yazie  projected  a  tunnel  from  Rotherhithe  to  Limehouse.  A 
company  was  formed  to  carry  out  the  latter  scheme,  and  a  shaft 
was  sunk,  at  considerable  expense,  to  a  depth  of  76  feet  below 
high  water.  The  works  were  from  time  to  time  suspended,  and 
it  was  not  until  the  year  1807,  when  Trevithick  was  appointed 
engineer  of  the  work,  that  arrangements  were  made  for  proceed- 
ing with  the  driftway  under  the  bed  of  the  Thames.  After  about 
five  months'  working,  the  drift  was  driven  for  a  length  of  953 
feet,  when  the  roof  gave  way  and  the  water  burst  in.  The  open- 
ing was,  however,  plugged  by  clay  in  bags  thrown  into  the  river, 
and  the  work  proceeded  until  1028  feet  had  been  accomplished. 
Then  the  water  burst  in  again,  and  the  process  of  plugging  and 
pumping  the  water  out  of  the  drift  was  repeated.  After  seventy 
more  feet  had  been  added  to  the  excavation,  there  was  another 
irruption,  which  completely  flooded  the  driftway,  and  the  water 
rose  nearly  to  the  top  of  the  shaft.  This  difficulty  was,  however, 
again  overcome,  and  with  great  danger  twenty  more  feet  were 
accomplished ;  but  the  bursts  of  water  became  so  frequent  and 


86  MEMOIR  OF  RICHARD  TREVITHICK.  [PART  I. 

unmanageable  that  at  length  the  face  of  the  drift  was  timbered 
up  and  the  work  abandoned.  Trevithick,  who  had  been  prom- 
ised a  reward  of  £1000  if  the  tunnel  succeeded,  thus  lost  both 
his  labor  and  his  reward.  The  only  remuneration  he  received 
from  the  Company  was  a  hundred  guineas,  which  were  paid  to 
him  according  to  agreement,  provided  he  carried  the  excavation 
to  the  extent  of  1000  yards,  which  he  did. 

Trevithick  returned  to  Camborne  in  1809,  where  we  find  him 
busily  occupied  with  new  projects,  and  introducing  his  new  en- 
gine worked  by  water-power,  the  first  of  which  was  put  up  at  the 
Druid  mine,  as  well  as  in  perfecting  his  high-pressure  engine  and 
its  working  by  expansion.  One  of  the  first  of  such  engines  was 
erected  at  the  Huel  Prosper  mine,  of  which  he  was  engineer ; 
and  this,  as  well  as  others  subsequently  constructed  on  the  same 
principle,  proved  quite  successful. 

In  1815  Trevithick  took  out  a  farther  patent,  embodying  sev- 
eral important  applications  of  steam-power.  One  of  these  con- 
sisted in  "  causing  steam  of  a  high  pressure  to  spout  out  against 
the  atmosphere,  and  by  its  recoiling  force  to  produce  motion  in  a 
direction  contrary  to  the  issuing  steam,  similar  to  the  motion  pro- 
duced in  a  rocket,  or  to  the  recoil  of  a  gun."  This  was,  however, 
but  a  revival  of  the  ancient  (Eolipile  described  by  Hero,  and 
known  as  "  Hero's  engine." 

In  another  part  of  his  specification  Trevithick  described  the 
screw-propeller  as  "a  screw  or  a  number  of  leaves  placed  ob- 
liquely round  an  axis  similar  to  the  vanes  of  a  smoke-jack,  which 
shall  be  made  to  revolve  with  great  speed  in  a  line  with  the  re- 
quired motion  of  the  ship,  or  parallel  to  the  same  line  of  motion." 
In  a  second  part  of  the  specification,  he  described  a  plunger  or 
pole-engine  in  which  the  steam  worked  at  high-pressure.  The 
first  engine  of  this  kind  was  erected  by  Trevithick  at  Herland  in 
1815,  but  the  result  was  not  equal  to  his  expectations,  though  the 
principle  was  afterward  successfully  applied  by  Mr.  William  Sims, 
who  purchased  the  patent-right. 

In  this  specification  Trevithick  also  described  a  tubular  boiler 
of  a  new  construction  for  the  purpose  of  more  rapidly  producing 
high-pressure  steam,  the  heating  surface  being  extended  by  con- 
structing the  boiler  of  a  number  of  small  perpendicular  tubes, 
closed  at  the  bottom,  but  all  opening  at  the  top  into  a  common 


CHAP.  III.]  MR.  UVILLE  AND  TREVITHICK.  87 

reservoir,  from  whence  they  received  their  water,  and  into  which 
the  steam  of  all  the  tubes  was  united. 

While  Trevithick  was  engaged  in  these  ingenious  projects,  an 
event  occurred  which,  though  it  promised  to  issue  in  the  most 
splendid  results,  proved  the  greatest  misfortune  of  Ins  life.  We 
refer  to  his-  adventures  in  connection  with  the  gold  mines  of  Peru. 
Many  of  the  richest  of  them  had  been  drowned  out,  the  pumping 
machinery  of  the  country  being  incapable  of  clearing  them  of 
water.  The  districts  in  which  they  were  situated  were  almost  in- 
accessible to  ordinary  traffic,  all  transport  being  conducted  on  the 
backs  of  men  or  of  mules.  The  parts  of  an  ordinary  condensing 
engine  were  too  ponderous  to  be  carried  up  these  mountain 
heights,  and  it  was  evident  that,  unless  some  lighter  sort  of  en- 
gine could  be  employed,  the  mines  in  question  must  be  aban- 
doned. 

Mr.  Uville',  a  Swiss  gentleman  interested  in  South  American 
mining,  came  over  from  Peru  to  England  in  1811  for  the  purpose 
of  making  inquiries  about  such  an  engine,  but  he  received  no  en- 
couragement. He  was  about  to  return  to  Lima,  in  despair  of  ac- 
complishing his  object,  when,  one  day,  accidentally  passing  a  shop- 
window  in  Fitzroy  Square,  he  caught  sight  of  an  engine  exposed 
for  sale  which  immediately  attracted  his  attention.  It  was  the 
engine  constructed  by  Trevithick  for  his  first  locomotive,  which 
he  had  sold  some  years  before,  on  the  sudden  abandonment  of 
the  exhibition  of  its  performances  in  London.  Mr.  Uville'  was 
so  much  pleased  with  its  construction  and  mode  of  action  that 
he  at  once  purchased  it  and  took  it  out  with  him  to  South  Amer- 
ica. Arrived  there,  he  had  the  engine  transported  across  the 
mountains  to  the  rich  mining  district  of  Pasco,  about  a  hundred 
miles  north  of  Lima,  to  try  its  effects  on  the  highest  mountain 
ridges. 

The  experiment  was  so  satisfactory  that  an  association  of  influ- 
ential gentlemen  was  immediately  formed  to  introduce  the  en- 
gine on  a  large  scale,  and  enter  into  contracts  with  the  mine-own- 
ers for  clearing  their  shafts  of  the  water  which  drowned  them. 
The  Viceroy  of  Peru  approved  the  plan,  and  the  association  dis- 
patched Mr.  Uville  to  England  to  purchase  the  requisite  engines. 
He  took  ship  for  Falmouth  about  the  end  of  1812  for  the  purpose 
of  finding  out  Trevithick.  He  only  knew  of  Trevithick  by  name, 


88  MEMOIR  OF  RICHARD  TREVITHICK.  [PART  I. 

and  that  he  lived  in  Cornwall,  but  nothing  farther.  Being  full 
of  his  subject,  however,  he  could  not  refrain  from  conversing  on 
the  subject  with  the  passengers  on  board  the  ship  by  which  he 
sailed,  and  it  so  happened  that  one  of  them — a  Mr.  Teague — was 
a  relative  of  Trevithick,  who  promised,  shortly  after  their  land- 
ing, to  introduce  him  to  the  inventor. 

Mr.  Teague  was  as  good  as  his  word,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few 
days  Uville  was  enabled  to  discuss  the  scheme  with  Trevithick  at 
his  own  house  at  Camborne,  where  he  still  resided.  The  result 
was  an  order  for  a  number  of  high-pressure  pumping-engines, 
which  were  put  in  hand  at  once ;  and  on  the  1st  of  September, 
1814,  nine  of  them  were  shipped  at  Portsmouth  for  Lima,  accom- 
panied by  Uville  and  three  Cornish  engineers,  one  of  whom  was 
William  Bull,  of  Chasewater,  Trevithick's  first  partner. 

The  engines  reached  Lima  in  safety,  and  were  welcomed  by  a 
royal  salute  and  with  public  rejoicings.  Such,  however,  was  the 
difficulty  of  transporting  the  materials  across  the  mountains,  that 
it  was  not  until  the  middle  of  the  year  1816  that  the  first  engine 
was  erected  and  set  to  work  to  pump  out  the  Santa  Kosa  mine, 
in  the  royal  mineral  territory  of  Taiiricocha.  The  association  of 
gentlemen  to  whom  the  engines  belonged  had  entered  into  a  con- 
tract to  drain  this  among  other  mines,  on  condition  of  sharing  in 
the  gross  produce  of  the  ores  to  the  extent  of  about  25  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  amount  raised.  The  result  of  the  first  working  of 
the  engine  was  so  satisfactory  that  the  projectors  were  filled  with 
no  less  astonishment  than  delight,  and  they  characterized  the  un- 
dertaking as  one  from  which  they  "  anticipated  a  torrent  of  silver 
that  would  fill  surrounding  nations  with  astonishment." 

In  the  mean  time  Trevithick  was  proceeding  at  home  with  the 
manufacture  of  the  remaining  engines,  as  well  as  new  coining  ap- 
paratus for  the  Penman  mint,  and  furnaces  for  purifying  silver 
ore  by  fusion ;  and  with  these  engines  and  apparatus  he  set  sail 
for  America  in  October,  1816,  reaching  Lima  in  safety  in  the  fol- 
lowing February.  He  was  received  with  almost  royal  honors. 
The  government  "  Gazette"  ofiicially  announced  "  the  arrival  of 
Don  Ricardo  Trevithick,  an  eminent  professor  of  mechanics,  ma- 
chinery, and  mineralogy,  inventor  and  constructor  of  the  engines 
of  the  last  patent,  and  who  directed  in  England  the  execution  of 
the  machinery  now  at  work  in  Pasco."  The  lord  warden  was  or- 


CHAP,  in.]  THE  REVOLUTION  IN  PERU.  89 

dered  by  the  viceroy  to  escort  Trevithick  to  the  mines  accompa- 
nied by  a  guard  of  honor.  The  news  of  his  expected  arrival  there 
occasioned  great  rejoicings,  and  the  chief  men  of  the  district  came 
down  the  mountains  to  meet  and  welcome  him.  Uville'  wrote  to 
his  associates  that  Trevithick  had  been  sent  out "  by  heaven  for 
the  prosperity  of  the  mines,  and  that  the  lord  warden  proposed  to 
erect  his  statue  in  solid  silver."  Trevithick  himself  wrote  home 
to  his  friends  in  Cornwall  that  he  had  before  him  the  prospect  of 
almost  boundless  wealth,  having,  in  addition  to  his  emoluments  as 
patentee,  obtained  a  fifth  share  in  the  Lima  Company,  which,  he 
expected,  on  a  moderate  computation,  would  yield  him  about 
£100,000  a  year ! 

But  these  brilliant  prospects  were  suddenly  blasted  by  the  Pe- 
ruvian revolution  which  broke  out  in  the  following  year.  While 
Mr.  Boaze  was  reading  his  paper*  before  the  Koyal  Geological 
Society  of  Cornwall,  in  which  these  anticipations  of  Trevithick's 
fame  and  fortune  were  so  glowingly  described,  Lord  Cochrane 
was  on  his  way  to  South  America  to  take  the  command  of  the 
Chilian  fleet  in  its  attack  of  the  ports  of  Peru,  still  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Spaniards. 

Toward  the  end  of  1818,  Lord  Cochrane  hoisted  his  flag,  and 
shortly  after  proceeded  to  assail  the  Spanish  fleet  in  Callao  Har- 
bor. This  proved  the  signal  for  a  general  insurrection,  during 
the  continuance  of  which  the  commercial  and  industrial  affairs 
of  the  province  were  completely  paralyzed.  The  pumping-en- 
gines  of  Trevithick  were  now  of  comparatively  little  use  in 
pumping  water  out  of  mines  in  which  the  miners  would  no  lon- 
ger work.  Although  Lima  was  abandoned  by  the  Spaniards  to- 
ward the  end  of  1821,  the  civil  war  continued  to  rage  for  sev- 
eral years  longer,  until  at  length  the  independence  of  Peru  was 
achieved ;  but  it  was  long  before  the  population  were  content  to 
settle  down  as  before,  and  follow  the  ordinary  pursuits  of  indus- 
try and  commerce. 

The  result  to  Trevithick  was,  that  he  and'  his  partners  in  the 
Mining  Company  were  consigned  to  ruin.  It  has  been  said  that 
the  engineer  joined  the  patriotic  party,  and  invented  for  Lord 

*  Paper  read  by  Henry  Boaze,  Esq.,  "On  Captain  Trevithick's  Adventures,"  at 
the  Anniversary  Meeting  of  September,  1817. — "Transactions  of  Royal  Geological 
Society  of  Cornwall, "  vol.  i.,  p.  212. 


90  MEMOIR  OF  RICHARD  TREVITHICK.  [PAST  I. 

Cochrane  an  ingenious  gun-carriage  centred  and  equally  balanced 
on  pivots,  and  easily  worked  by  machinery ;  but  of  this  no  men- 
tion is  made  by  Lord  Cochrane  in  his  "  Memoirs."  The  Patriots 
kept  Trevithick  on  the  mountains  as  a  sort  of  patron  and  pro- 
tector of  their  interests ;  but  for  this  very  reason  he  became  pro- 
portionately obnoxious  to  the  Royalists,  who,  looking  upon  him  as 
the  agent  through  whom  the  patriotic  party  obtained  the  sinews 
of  war,  destroyed  his  engines,  and  broke  up  his  machinery  wher- 
ever they  could.  At  length  he  determined  to  escape  from  Peru, 
and  fled  northward  across  the  mountains,  accompanied  by  a  sin- 
gle friend,  making  for  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.*  In  the  course  of 
this  long,  toilsome,  and  dangerous  journey,  he  encountered  great 
privations ;  he  slept  in  the  forest  at  night,  traveled  on  foot  by  day, 
and  crossed  the  streams  by  swimming.  At  length,  his  clothes  torn, 
worn,  and  hanging  almost  in  shreds,  and  his  baggage  all  lost,  he 
succeeded  in  reaching  the  port  of  Cartagena,  on  the  Gulf  of  Da- 
rien,  almost  destitute. 

Here  he  encountered  Robert  Stephenson,  who  was  waiting  at 
the  one  inn  of  the  place  until  a  ship  was  ready  to  set  sail  for  En- 
gland. Stephenson  had  finished  his  engagement  with  the  Colom- 
bian Mining  Company  for  which  he  had  been  working,  and  was 
eager  to  return  home.  When  Trevithick  entered  the  room  in 
which  he  was  sitting,  Stephenson  at  once  saw  that  he  was  an  En- 
glishman. He  stood  some  six  feet  in  height,  and,  though  well 
proportioned  when  in  ordinary  health,  he  was  now  gaunt  and  hol- 
low, the  picture  of  privation  and  misery. 

Stephenson  made  up  to  the  stranger,  and  was  not  a  little  sur- 
prised to  find  that  he  was  no  other  than  the  famous  engineer, 
Trevithick,  the  builder  of  the  first  patent  locomotive,  and  who, 
when  he  last  heard  of  him,  was  accumulating  so  gigantic  a  for- 
tune in  Peru.  Though  now  penniless,  Trevithick  was  as  full  of 
speculation  as  ever,  and  related  to  Stephenson  that  he  was  on  his 
way  home  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  another  gold-mining 
company,  which  should  make  the  fortunes  of  all  who  took  part 
in  it  He  was,  however,  in  the  mean  time,  unable  to  pay  for  his 
passage,  and  Stephenson  lent  him  the  requisite  money  for  the 
purpose  of  reaching  his  home  in  Cornwall. 

As  there  was  no  vessel  likely  to  sail  for  England  for  some  time, 
Stephenson  and  Trevithick  took  the  first  ship  bound  for  ISTew 


.]  HOME  AGAIN.— MORE  PATENTS.  91 

York.  After  a  stormy  passage,  full  of  adventure  and  peril,  the 
vessel  was  driven  on  a  lee-shore,  and  the  passengers  and  crew 
barely  escaped  with  their  lives.  On  reaching  New  York,  Trevi- 
thick  immediately  set  sail  for  England,  and  he  landed  safe  at  Fal- 
mouth  in  October,  1827,  bringing  back  with  him  a  pair  of  silver 
spurs,  the  only  remnant  which  he  had  preserved  of  those  "  tor- 
rents of  silver"  which  his  engines  were  to  raise  from  the  mines 
of  Peru. 

Immediately  on  his  return  home,  Treyithick  memorialized  the 
government  for  some  remuneration  adequate  to  the  great  benefit 
which  the  country  had  derived  from  hk  invention  of  the  high- 
pressure  steam-engine,  and  his  introduction  of  the  cylindrical 
boiler.  The  petition  was  prepared  in  December,  1827,  and  was 
cheerfully  signed  by  4he  leading  mine-owners  and  engineers  in 
Cornwall ;  but  there  their  efforts  on  his  behalf  ended. 

He  took  out  two  more  patents — one  in  1831,  for  a  new  method 
of  heating  apartments,  and  another  in  1832,  for  improvements  in 
the  steam-engine,  and  the  application  of  steam-power  to  naviga- 
tion and  locomotion ;  but  neither  of  them  seems  to  have  proved 
of  any  service  to  him.  His  new  improvement  in  the  steam-engine 
was  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  invention  of  an  apparatus  sim- 
ilar to  that  which  has  quite  recently  come  into  use  for  employing 
superheated  steam  as  a  means  of  working  the  engine  more  effect- 
ively and  economically.  The  patent  also  included  a  method  of 
propelling  ships  by  ejecting  water  through  a  tube  with  great  force 
and  speed  in  a  direction  opposite  to  the  course  of  the  vessel,  a 
method  since  reinvented  in  many  forms,  though  not  yet  success- 
fully introduced  in  practice. 

Strange  to  say,  though  Trevithick  had  been  so  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  practical  introduction  of  the  Locomotive,  he 
seems  to  have  taken  but  little  interest  in  its  introduction  upon 
railways,  but  confined  himself  to  advocating  its  employment  on 
common  roads  as  its  most  useful  application.*  Though  in  many 
things  he  was  before  his  age,  here  he  was  unquestionably  behind 

*  On  the  12th  of  August,  1831,  by  which  time  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line 
was  in  full  work,  Trevithick  appeared  as  a  witness  before  the  select  committee  of  the 
House  of  Commons  on  the  employment  of  steam-carriages  on  common  roads.  He 
said  "he  had  been  abroad  a  good  many  years,  and  had  had  nothing  to  do  with  steam- 
carriages  until  very  ktely.  He  had  it  now,  however,  in  contemplation  to  do  a  great 
deal  on  common  roads,  and,  with  that  view,  had  taken  out  a  patent  for  an  entirely 


92  MEMOIR  OF  RICHARD  TREVITHICK.  [PART  I. 

it.  But  Trevithick  was  now  an  old  man ;  his  constitution  was 
broken,  and  his  energy  worked  out.  Younger  men  were  in  the 
field,  less  ingenious  and  speculative,  but  more  practical  and  ener- 
getic ;  and  in  the  blaze  of  their  fame  the  Cornish  engineer  was 
forgotten. 

During  the  last  year  of  his  life  Trevithick  resided  at  Dartf ord, 
in  Kent.  He  had  induced  the  Messrs.  Hall,  the  engineers  of  that 
place,  to  give  him  an  opportunity  of  testing  the  value  of  his  last  in- 
vention— that  of  a  vessel  .driven  by  the  ejection  of  water  through 
a  tube — and  he  went  there  to  superintend  the  construction  of  the 
necessary  engine  and  apparatus.  The  vessel  was  duly  fitted  up, 
and  several  experiments  were  made  with  it  in  the  adjoining  creek, 
but  it  did  not  realize  a  speed  of  more  than  four  miles  an  hour. 
Trevithick,  being  of  opinion  that  the  engine-power  was  insuffi- 
cient, proceeded  to  have  a  new  engine  constructed,  to  the  boiler 
of  which,  within  the  furnace,  numerous  tubes  were  attached, 
round  which  the  fire  played.  So  much  steam  was  raised  by  this 
arrangement  that  the  piston  "  blew ;"  but  still  the  result  of  the 
experiments  was  unsatisfactory.  While  laboring  at  these  inven- 
tions, and  planning  new  arrangements  never  to  be  carried  out,  the 
engineer  was  seized  by  the  illness  of  which  he  died,  on  the  22d  of 
April,  1833,  in  the  62d  year  of  his  age. 

As  Trevithick  was  entirely  without  means  at  his  death,  besides 
being  some  sixty  pounds  in  debt  to  the  landlord  of  the  Bull  Inn, 
where  he  had  been  lodging  for  nearly  a  year,  he  would  probably 
have  been  buried  at  the  expense  of  the  parish  but  for  the  Messrs. 
Hall  and  their  workmen,  who  raised  a  sum  sufficient  to  give  the 
"  great  inventor"  a  decent  burial ;  and  they  followed  his  remains 
to  the  grave  in  Deptford  Church-yard,  where  he  lies  without  a 
stone  to  mark  his  resting-place. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  great  mechanical  ability  of 
Trevithick.  He  was  a  man  of  original  and  intuitive  genius  in 
invention.  Every  mechanical  arrangement  which  he  undertook 
to  study  issued  from  his  hands  transformed  and  improved.  But 
there  he  rested.  He  struck  out  many  inventions,  and  left  them 
to  take  care  of  themselves.  His  great  failing  was  the  want  of 

new  engine,  the  arrangements  in  which  were  calculated  to  obviate  all  the  difficulties 
which  had  hitherto  stood  in  the  way  of  traveling  on  common  roads." 


CHAP.  IH.]       TKEVITHICK'S  SPLENDID  BEGINNINGS.  93 

perseverance.  His  mind  was  always  full  of  projects ;  but  his  very 
genius  led  him  astray  in  search  of  new  things,  while  his  imagina- 
tion often  outran  his  judgment.  Hence  his  life  was  but  a  series 
of  beginnings. 

Look  at  the  extraordinary  things  that  Trevithick  began.  He 
made  the  first  railway  locomotive,  and  cast  the  invention  aside, 
leaving  it  to  others  to  take  it  up  and  prosecute  it  to  a  successful 
issue.  He  introduced,  if  he  did  not  invent,  the  cylindrical  boiler 
and  the  high-pressure  engine,  which  increased  so  enormously  the 
steam-power  of  the  world ;  but  he  reaped  the  profits  of  neither. 
He  invented  an  oscillating  engine  and  a  screw  propeller ;  he  took 
out  a  patent  for  using  superheated  steam,  as  well  as  for  wrought- 
iron  ships  and  wrought-iron  floating  docks ;  but  he  left  it  to  oth- 
ers to  introduce  these  several  inventions. 

Never  was  there  such  a  series  of  splendid  mechanical  begin- 
nings. He  began  a  Thames  Tunnel  and  abandoned  it.  He  went 
to  South  America  with  the  prospect  of  making  a  gigantic  for- 
tune, but  he  had  scarcely  begun  to  gather  in  his  gold  than  he  was 
forced  to  fly,  and  returned  home  destitute.  This  last  event,  how- 
ever, was  a  misfortune  which  no  efforts  on  his  part  could  have 
prevented.  But  even  when  he  had  the  best  chances,  Trevithick 
threw  them  away.  When  he  had  brought  his  road  locomotive  to 
London  to  exhibit,  and  was  beginning  to  excite  the  curiosity  of 
the  public  respecting  it,  he  suddenly  closed  the  exhibition  in  a  fit 
of  caprice,  removed  the  engine,  and  returned  to  Cornwall  in  a 
tiff.  The  failure,  also,  of  the  railroad  on  which  his  locomotive 
traveled  so  provoked  him  that  he  at  once  abandoned  the  enter- 
prise in  disgust. 

There  may  have  been  some  moral  twist  in  the  engineer's  char- 
acter, into  which  we  do  not  seek  to  pry ;  but  it  seems  clear  that 
he  was  wanting  in  that  resolute  perseverance,  that  power  of  fight- 
ing an  up-hill  battle,  without  which  no  great  enterprise  can  be 
conducted  to  a  successful  issue.  In  this  respect  the  character  of 
Richard  Trevithick  presents  a  remarkable  contrast  to  that  of 
George  Stephenson,  who  took  up  only  one  of  the  many  projects 
which  the  other  had  cast  aside,  and  by  dint  of  application,  indus- 
try, and  perseverance,  carried  into  effect  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able but  peaceful  revolutions  which  has  ever  been  accomplished 
in  any  age  or  country. 


94  MEMOIR  OF  RICHARD  TREVITHICK.  [PART  I. 

We  now  proceed  to  describe  the  history  of  this  revolution  in 
connection  with  the  Life  of  George  Stephenson,  and  to  trace  the 
locomotive  through  its  several  stages  of  development  until  we 
find  it  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  vigorous  and  untiring  work- 
ers in  the  entire  world  of  industry. 


LIYES 

OF 

GEORGE  AND  ROBERT  STEPHENSON. 


NEWCASTLE-UPON-TTNE   AND  THE  HIGH-LEVEL  BRIDGE. 
[By  E.  P.  Leitch.  after  his  Original  Drawing.] 


LIFE  OF  GEORGE  STEPHENSON,  ETC, 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   NEWCASTLE   COAL-FIELD GEORGE   STEPHENSON's   EARLY  YEARS. 

IN  no  quarter  of  England  have  greater  changes  been  wrought 
by  the  successive  advances  made  in  the  practical  science  of  en- 
gineering than  in  the  extensive  colliery  districts  of  the  North,  of 
which  Newcastle-upon-Tyne  is  the  centre  and  the  capital. 

In  ancient  times  the  Romans  planted  a  colony  at  Newcastle, 
throwing  a  bridge  across  the  Tyne  near  the  site  of  the  low-level 
bridge  shown  in  the  prefixed  engraving,  and  erecting  a  strong 
fortification  above  it  on  the  high  ground  now  occupied  by  the 
Central  Railway  Station.  North  and  northwest  lay  a  wild  coun- 
try, abounding  in  moors,  mountains,  and  morasses,  but  occupied 
to  a  certain  extent  by  fierce  and  barbarous  tribes.  To  defend 
the  young  colony  against  their  ravages,  a  strong  wall  was  built 
by  the  Romans,  extending  from  Wallsend  on  the  north  bank  of 
the  Tyne,  a  few  miles  below  Newcastle,  across  the  country  to 
Burgh-upon-Sands  on  the  Solway  Frith.  The  remains  of  the 
wall  are  still  to  be  traced  in  the  less  populous  hill-districts  of 
Northumberland.  In  the  neighborhood  of  Newcastle  they  have 
been  gradually  effaced  by  the  works  of  succeeding  generations, 
though  the  "  Wallsend"  coal  consumed  in  our  household  fires  still 
serves  to  remind  us  of  the  great  Roman  work. 

After  the  withdrawal  »of  the  Romans,  Northumbria  became 
planted  by  immigrant  Saxons  from  North  Germany  and  Norse- 
men from  Scandinavia,  whose  eorls  or  earls  made  Newcastle  their 
principal  seat.  Then  came  the  Normans,  from  whose  New  Cas- 
tle, built  some  eight  hundred  years  since,  the  town  derives  its 
present  name.  The  keep  of  this  venerable  structure,  black  with 
age  and  smoke,  still  stands  entire  at  the  northern  end  of  the  no- 

G 


THE  NEWCASTLE  COAL-FIELD. 


[PART  II. 


ble  high-level  bridge — the  utilitarian  work  of  modern  times  thus 
confronting  the  warlike  relic  of  the  older  civilization. 


MAP  OP  NEWCASTLE  DISTRICT. 


The  nearness  of  Newcastle  to  the  Scotch  Border  was  a  great 
hinderance  to  its  security  and  progress  in  the  middle  ages  of  En- 
glish history.  Indeed,  the  district  between  it  and  Berwick  con- 
tinued to  be  ravaged  by  moss-troopers  long  after  the  union  of  the 
crowns.  The  gentry  lived  in  their  strong  Peel  castles ;  even  the 
larger  farm-houses  were  fortified ;  and  blood-hounds  were  trained 
for  the  purpose  of  tracking  the  cattle-reavers  to  their  retreats  in 
the  hills.  The  judges  of  Assize  rode  from  Carlisle  to  Newcastle 
guarded  by  an  escort  armed  to  the  teeth.  A  tribute  called  "  dag- 
ger and  protection  money"  was  annually  paid  by  the  sheriff  of 
Newcastle  for  the  purpose  of  providing  daggers  and  other  weap- 
ons for  the  escort ;  and,  though  the  need  of  such  protection  has 
long  since  ceased,  the  tribute  continues  to  be  paid  in  broad  gold 
pieces  of  the  time  of  Charles  the  First. 

Until  about  the  middle  of  last  century  the  roads  across  Nor- 
thumberland were  little  better  than  horse-tracks,  and  not  many 
years  since  the  primitive  agricultural  cart  with  solid  wooden 
wheels  was  almost  as  common  in  the  \\aestern  parts  of  the  county 
as  it  is  in  Spain  now.  The  track  of  the  old  Roman  road  long 
continued  to  be  the  most  practicable  route  between  Newcastle 
and  Carlisle,  the  traffic  between  the  two  towns  having  been  car- 
ried on  pack-horses  until  within  a  comparatively  recent  period. 

Since  that  time  great  changes  have  taken  place  on  the  Tyne. 
When  wood  for  firing  became  scarce  and  dear,  and  the  forests  of 


CHAP.  I.]  MODERN  NEWCASTLE.  99 

the  South  of  England  were  found  inadequate  to  supply  the  in- 
creasing demand  for  fuel,  attention  was  turned  to  the  rich  stores 
of  coal  lying  underground  in  the  neighborhood  of  Newcastle  and 
Durham.  It  then  became  an  article  of  increasing  export,  and 
"  sea-coal"  fires  gradually  superseded  those  of  wood.  Hence  an 
old  writer  describes  Newcastle  as  "  the  Eye  of  the  North,  and  the 
Hearth  that  warmeth  the  South  parts  of  this  kingdom  with  Fire." 
Fuel  became  the  staple  product  of  the  district,  the  quantity  ex- 
ported increasing  from  year  to  year,  until  the  coal  raised  from 
these  northern  mines  amounts  to  upward  of  sixteen  millions  of 
tons  a  year,  of  which  not  less  than  nine  millions  are  annually  con- 
veyed away  by  sea. 

Newcastle  has  in  the  mean  time  spread  in  all  directions  far  be- 
yond its  ancient  boundaries.  From  a  walled  mediaeval  town  of 
monks  and  merchants,  it  has  been  converted  into  a  busy  centre 
of  commerce  and  manufactures  inhabited  by  nearly  100,000  peo- 
ple. It  is  no  longer  a  Border  fortress — a  "  shield  and  defense 
against  the  invasions  and  frequent  insults  of  the  Scots,"  as  de- 
scribed in  ancient  charters — but  a  busy  centre  of  peaceful  indus- 
try, and  the  outlet  for  a  vast  amount  of  steam-power,  which  is  ex- 
ported in  the  form  of  coal  to  all  parts  of  the  world.  Newcastle 
is  in  many  respects  a  town  of  singular  and  curious  interest,  espe- 
cially in  its  older  parts,  which  are  full  of  crooked  lanes  an£  nar- 
row streets,  wynds,  and  chares,  formed  by  tall,  antique  houses, 
rising  tier  above  tier  along  the  steep  northern  bank  of  the  Tyne, 
as  the  similarly  precipitous  streets  of  Gateshead  crowd  the  op- 
posite shore. 

All  over  the  coal  region,  which  extends  from  the  Coquet  to  the 
Tees,  about  fifty  miles  from  north  to  south,  the  surface  of  the  soil 
exhibits  the  signs  of  extensive  underground  workings.  As  you 
pass  through  the  country  at  night,  the  earth  looks  as  if  it  were 
bursting  with  fire  at  many  points,  the  blaze  of  coke-ovens,  iron- 
furnaces,  and  coal-heaps  reddening  the  sky  to  such  a  distance  that 
the  horizon  seems  like  a  glowing  belt  of  fire. 

Among  the  upper-ground  workmen  employed  at  the  coal-pits, 
the  principal  are  the  firemen,  engine-men,  and  brakesmen,  who 
fire  and  work  the  engines,  and  superintend  the  machinery  by 
means  of  which  the  collieries  are  worked.  Previous  to  the  intro- 
duction of  the  steam-engine,  the  usual  machine  employed  for  the 


100  THE  NEWCASTLE  COAL-FIELD.  [PART  II. 

purpose  was  what  is  called  a  "  gin."  The  gin  consists  of  a  large 
drum  placed  horizontally,  round  which  ropes  attached  to  buckets 
and  corves  are  wound,  which  are  thus  drawn  up  or  sent  down  the 
shafts  by  a  horse  traveling  in  a  circular  track  or  "  gin  race." 
This  method  was  employed  for  drawing  up  both  coals  and  water, 
and  it  is  still  used  for  the  same  purpose  in  small  collieries ;  but 
where  the  quantity  of  water  to  be  raised  is  great,  pumps  worked 
by  steam-power  are  called  into  requisition. 

Newcomen's  atmospheric  engine  was  first  made  use  of  to  work 
the  pumps,  and  it  continued  to  be  so  employed  long  after  the 
more  powerful  and  economical  condensing  engine  of  Watt  had 
been  invented.  In  the  Newcomen  or  "fire-engine,"  as  it  was 
called,  the  power  is  produced  by  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere 
forcing  down  the  piston  in  the  cylinder,  on  a  vacuum  being  pro- 
duced within  it  by  condensation  of  the  contained  steam  by  means 
of  cold-wrater  injection.  The  piston-rod  is  attached  to  one  end 
of  a  lever,  while  the  pump-rod  works  in  connection  with  the  oth- 
er, the  hydraulic  action  employed  to  raise  the  water  being  exactly 
similar  to  that  of  a  common  sucking-pump. 

The  working  of  a  Newcomen  engine  was  a  clumsy  and  appar- 
ently a  very  painful  process,  accompanied  by  an  extraordinary 
amount  of  wheezing,  sighing,  creaking,  and  bumping.  When  the 
pumf  descended,  there  was  heard  a  plunge,  a  heavy  sigh,  and  a 
loud  bump ;  then,  as  it  rose,  and  the  sucker  began  to  act,  there 
was  heard  a  creak,  a  wheeze,  another  bump,  and  then  a  rush  of 
water  as  it  was  lifted  and  poured  out.  Where  engines  of  a  more 
powerful  and  improved  description  were  used,  as  is  now  the  case, 
the  quantity  of  water  raised  is  enormous — as  much  as  a  million 
and  a  half  gallons  in  the  twenty-four  hours. 

The  pitmen,  or  "  the  lads  belaw,"  who  work  out  the  coal  below 
ground,  are  a  peculiar  class,  quite  distinct  from  the  workmen  on 
the  surface.  They  are  a  people  with  peculiar  habits,  manners, 
and  character,  as  much  so  as  fishermen  and  sailors,  to  whom,  in- 
deed, they  bear,  in  some  respects,  a  considerable  resemblance. 
Some  fifty  years  since,  they  were  a  much  rougher  and  worse  edu- 
cated class  than  they  are  now ;  hard  workers,  but  very  wild  and 
uncouth;  much  given  to  "steeks,"  or  strikes;  and  distinguished, 
in  their  hours  of  leisure  and  on  pay-nights,  for  their  love  of  cock- 
fighting,  dog-fighting,  hard  drinking,  and  cuddy  races.  The  pay- 


CHAP. I.]  THE  PITMEN.— STAITHS.— "  KEELS."  101 

night  was  a  fortnightly  saturnalia,  in  which  the  pitman's  charac-" 
ter  was  fully  brought  out,  especially  when  the  "  yel"  was  good. 
Though  earning  much  higher  wages  than  the  ordinary  laboring 
population  of  the  upper  soil,  the  latter  did  not  mix  nor  intermar- 
ry with  them,  so  that  they  were  left  to  form  their  own  communi- 
ties, and  hence  their  marked  peculiarities  as  a  class.  Indeed,  a 
sort  of  traditional  disrepute  seems  long  to  have  clung  to  the  pit- 
men, arising  perhaps  from  the  nature  of  their  employment,  and 
from  the  circumstance  that  the  colliers  were  among  the  last  class- 
es enfranchised  in  England,  as  they  were  certainly  the  last  in 
Scotland,  where  they  continued  bondmen  down  to  the  end  of  last 
century.  The  last  thirty  years,  however,  have  worked  a  great 
improvement  in  the  moral  condition  of  the  Northumbrian  pit- 
men ;  the  abolition  of  the  twelve  months'  bond  to  the  mine,  and 
the  substitution  of  a  month's  notice  previous  to  leaving,  having 
given  them  greater  freedom  and  opportunity  for  obtaining  em- 
ployment ;  and  day-schools  and  Sunday-schools,  together  with  the 
important  influences  of  railways,  have  brought  them  fully  up  to 
a  level  with  the  other  classes  of  the  laboring  population. 

The  coals,  when  raised  from  the  pits,  are  emptied  into  the  wag- 
ons placed  alongside,  from  whence  theatre  sent  along  the  rails 
to  the  staiths  erected  by  the  river-side,  m&  wagons  sometimes  de- 
scending by  their  own  gravity  along  inclined  planes,  the  wagoner 
standing  behind  to  check  the  speed  by  means  of  a  convoy  or 
wooden  brake  bearing  upon  the  rims  of  the  wheels.  Arrived  at 
the  staiths,  the  wagons  are  emptied  at  once  into  the  ships  waiting 
alongside  for  cargo.  Any  one  who  has  sailed  down  the  Tyne 
from  Newcastle  Bridge  can  not  but  have  been  struck  with  the 
appearance  of  the  immense  staiths,  constructed  of  timber,  which 
are  erected  at  short  distances  from  each  other  on  both  sides  of 
the  river. 

But  a  great  deal  of  the  coal  shipped  from  the  Tyne  comes  from 
above-bridge,  where  sea-going  craft  can  not  reach,  and  is  floated 
down  the  river  in  "  keels,"  in  which  the  coals  are  sometimes  piled 
up  according  to  convenience  when  large,  or,  when  the  coal  is 
small  or  tender,  it  is  conveyed  in  tubs  to  prevent  breakage.  These 
keels  are  of  a  very  ancient  model — perhaps  the  oldest  extant  in 
England :  they  are  even  said  to  be  of  the  same  build  as  those  in 
which  the  Norsemen  navigated  the  Tyne  centuries  ago.  The 


102  THE  NEWCASTLE  COAL  TRAFFIC. 

keel  is  a  tubby,  grimy-looking  craft,  rounded  fore  and  aft,  with  a 
single  large  square  sail,  which  the  keel-bullies,  as  the  Tyne  water- 
men are  called,  manage  with  great  dexterity ;  the  vessel  being 
guided  by  the  aid  of  the  "  swape,"  or  great  oar,  which  is  used  as 
a  kind  of  rudder  at  the  stern  of  the  vessel.  These  keehnen  are  an 
exceedingly  hardy  class  of  workmen,  not  by  any  means  so  quar- 
relsome as  their  designation  of  "  bully"  would  imply — the  word 
being  merely  derived  from  the  obsolete  term  "  boolie,"  or  beloved, 
an  appellation  still  in  familiar  use  among  brother  workers  in  the 
coal  districts.  One  of  the  most  curious  sights  on  the  Tyne  is  the 
fleet  of  hundreds  of  these  black-sailed,  black-hulled  keels,  bring- 
ing down  at  each  tide  their  black  cargoes  for  the  ships  at  anchor 
in  the  deep  water  at  Shields  and  other  parts  of  the  river  below 
Newcastle. 

These  preliminary  observations  will  perhaps  be  sufficient  to  ex- 
plain the  meaning  of  many  of  the  occupations  alluded  to,  and 
the  phrases  employed,  in  the  course  of  the  following  narrative, 
some  of  which  might  otherwise  have  been  comparatively  unintel- 
ligible to  the  reader. 

The  colliery  village  aiS^ylam  is  situated  on  the  north  bank  of 
the  Tyne,  about  eight  miles  west  of  Newcastle.  The  Newcastle 
and  Carlisle  Eailway  runs  along  the  opposite  bank ;  and  the  trav- 
eler by  that  line  sees  the  usual  signs  of  a  colliery  in  the  unsightly 
pumping-engines  surrounded  by  heaps  of  ashes,  coal-dust,  and 
slag,  while  a  neighboring  iron-furnace  in  full  blast  throws  out 
dense  smoke  and  loud  jets  of  steam  by  day  and  lurid  flames  at 
night.  These  works  form  the  nucleus  of  the  village,  which  is  al- 
most entirely  occupied  by  coal-miners  and  iron-furnace-men. 
The  place  is  remarkable  for  its  large  population,  but  not  for  its 
cleanness  or  neatness  as  a  village ;  the  houses,  as  in  most  colliery 
villages,  being  the  property  of  the  owners  or  lessees,  who  employ 
them  in  temporarily  accommodating  the  work-people,  against 
whose  earnings  there  is  a  weekly  set-off  for  house  and  coals. 
About  the  end  of  last  century,  the  estate  of  which  Wylam  forms 
part  belonged  to  Mr.  Blackett,  a  gentleman  of  considerable  celeb- 
rity in  coal-mining,  then  more  generally  known  as  the  proprietor 
of  the  "  Globe"  newspaper. 

There  is  nothing  to  interest  one  in  the  village  itself.'    But  a 


CHAP.  I.]  GEORGE  STEPHENSON'S  BIRTHPLACE. 


103 


few  hundred  yards  from  its  eastern  extremity  stands  a  humble 
detached  dwelling,  which  will  be  interesting  to  many  as  the  birth- 


COLLIERY  AND  VILLAGE.    [By  R.  P.  Leitch.] 


place  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  our  times — George 
Stephenson,  the  Eailway  Engineer.  It  is  a  common,  two-storied, 
red-tiled,  nibble  house,  portioned  off  into  four  laborers'  apart- 
ments. It  is  known  by  the  name  of  High-street  House,  and  was 
originally  so  called  because  it  stands  by  the  side  of  what  used  to 
be  the  old  riding  post-road  or  street  between  Newcastle  and  Hex- 
ham,  along  which  the  post  was  carried  on  horseback  within  the 
memory  of  persons  living. 

The  lower  room  in  the  west  end  of  this  house  was  the  home  of 
the  Stephenson  family,  and  there  George  Stephenson  was  born, 
the  second  of  a  family  of  six  children,  on  the  9th  of  June,  1781. 
The  apartment  is  now,  what  it  was  then,  an  ordinary  laborer's 
dwelling ;  its  walls  are  unplastered,  its  floor  is  of  clay,  and  the 
bare  rafters  are  exposed  overhead. 

Robert  Stephenson,  or  "  Old  Bob,"  as  the  neighbors  familiarly 
called  him,  and  his  wife  Mabel,  were  a  respectable  couple,  careful 
and  hard-working.  Robert  Stephenson's  father  was  a  Scotch- 


104 


MABEL  STEPHENSON. 


P?ABT  II. 


man,  who  came  into  England  in  the  capacity  of  a  gentleman's 
servant.*  Mabel,  his  wife,  was  the  second  daughter  of  Kobert 
Carr,  a  dyer  at  Ovingham.  The  Carrs  were  for  several  genera- 


IGH-BTBKET  HOUSE,  WYLAM.      [B 


tions  the  owners  of  a  house  in  that  village  adjoining  the  church- 
yard; and  the  family  tomb-stone  may  still  be  seen  standing 
against  the  east  end  of  the  chancel  of  the  parish  church,  under- 
neath the  centre  lancet  window,  as  the  tomb-stone  of  Thomas 

'Bewick,  the  wood-engraver,  occupies  the  western  gable.  Mabel 
Stephenson  was  a  woman  of  somewhat  delicate  constitution,  and 
troubled  occasionally,  as  her  neighbors  said,  with  "  the  vapors." 
But  those  who  remembered  her  concurred  in  describing  her  as 
"  a  real  canny  body ;"  and  a  woman  of  whom  this  is  said  by 
general  consent  in  the  Newcastle  district  may  be  pronounced  a 
worthy  person  indeed,  for  it  is  about  the  highest  praise  of  a  wom- 

^  an  which  Northumbrians  can  express. 

*  A  tradition  exists  in  the  family  that  Robert  Stephenson's  father  came  across  the 
Border  on  the  loss  of  considerable  property.  Miss  Stephenson,  the  daughter  of  Rob- 
ert's third  son,  John,  has  stated  that  a  suit  was  commenced  for  recovery  of  the  prop- 
erty, but  was  dropped  for  want  of  the  requisite  means  to  prosecute  it. 


CHAP.  I.]  THE  STEPHENSON  FAMILY.  105 

For  some  time  after  their  marriage,  Kobert  resided  with  his 
wife  at  Walbottle,  a  village  situated  between  Wylam  and  New- 
castle, where  he  was  employed  as  a  laborer  at  the  colliery ;  after 
which  the  family  removed  to  Wylam,  where  he  found  employ- 
ment as  fireman  of  the  old  pumping-engine  at  that  colliery. 

George  Stephenson  was  the  second  of  a  family  of  six  children.* 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  birth  of  any  of  the  children  was 
registered  in  the  parish  books,  the  author  having  made  an  unsuc- 
cessful search  in  the  registers  of  Ovingham  and  Heddon-on-the- 
Wall  to  ascertain  the  fact. 

An  old  Wylam  collier,  who  remembered  George  Stephenson's 
father,  thus  described  him :  "  Geordie's  fayther  war  like  a  peer  o' 
deals  nailed  thegither,  an'  a  bit  o'  flesh  i'  th'  inside ;  he  war  as 
queer  as  Dick's  hatband — went  thrice  aboot,  an'  wudn't  tie.  His 
wife  Mabel  war  a  delicat'  boddie,  an'  varry  flighty.  They  war 
an  honest  family,  but  sair  hadden  doon  i'  th'  world."  Indeed, 
the  earnings  of  old  Robert  did  not  amount  to  more  than  twelve 
shillings  a  week ;  and,  as  there  were  six  children  to  maintain, 
the  family,  during  their  stay  at  Wylam,  were  necessarily  in  very 
straitened  circumstances.  The  father's  wages  being  barely  suffi- 
cient, even  with  the  most  rigid  economy,  for  the  sustenance  of 
the  household,  there  was  little  to  spare  for  clothing,  and  nothing 
for  education,  so  that  none  of  the  children  were  sent  to  school. 

Old  Robert  was  a  general  favorite  in  the  village,  especially 
among  the  children,  whom  he  was  accustomed  to  draw  about  him 
while  tending  the  engine-fire,  and  feast  their  young  imaginations 
with  tales  of  Sinbad  the  Sailor  and  Robinson  Crusoe,  besides  oth- 

*  The  family  Bible  of  Robert  and  Mabel  Stephenson,  which  seems  to  hare  come 
into  their  possession  in  November,  1790,  contains  the  following  record  of  the  births 
of  these  children,  evidently  written  by  one  hand  and  at  one  time : 

'  A  Rechester  of  the  children  belonging  Robert  and  Mabel  Stepheson — 

'  James  Stepheson  Was  Born  March  the  4  day  1779 

'  George  Stepheson  Was  Born  June  9  day  1781 

'  Elender  Stepheson  Was  Bora  April  the  16  day  1784 

'  Robert  Stepheson  Was  Born  March  the  10  day  1788 

'John  Stepheson  Was  Born  November  the  4  day  1789 

'  Ann  Stepheson  Was  Bom  July  the  19  day  1792." 

Of  the  two  daughters,  Eleanor  married  Stephen  Liddell,  afterward  employed  in  the 
Locomotive  Factory  in  Newcastle.  Ann  married  John  Nixon,  with  whom  she  emi- 
grated to  the  United  States ;  she  died  at  Pittsburg  in  1 860.  John  Stephenson  was 
accidentally  killed  at  the  Locomotive  Factory  in  January,  1831. 


106  GEORGE  STEPHENSON'S  EARLY  YEARS.         [PAET  II. 

ers  of  his  own  invention ;  so  that "  Bob's  engine-fire"  came  to  be 
the  most  popular  resort  in  the  village.  Another  feature  in  his 
character,  by  which  he  was  long  remembered,  was  his  affection 
for  birds  and  animals ;  and  he  had  many  tame  favorites  of  both 
sorts,  which  were  as  fond  of  resorting  to  his  engine-fire  as  the 
boys  and  girls  themselves.  In  the  winter  time  he  had  usually  a 
flock  of  tame  robins  about  him ;  and  they  would  come  hopping 
familiarly  to  his  feet  to  pick  up  the  crumbs  which  he  had  saved 
for  them  out  of  his  humble  dinner.  At  his  cottage  he  was  rarely 
without  one  or  more  tame  blackbirds,  which  flew  about  the  house, 
or  in  and  out  at  the  door.  In  summer  time  he  would  go  bird- 
nesting  with  his  children;  and  one  day  he  took  his  little  boy 
George  to  see  a  blackbird's  nest  for  the  first  time.  Holding  him 
up  in  his  arms,  he  let  the  wondering  boy  peep  down,  through  the 
branches  held  aside  for  the  purpose,  into  a  nest  full  of  young 
birds — a  sight  which  the  boy  never  forgot,  but  used  to  speak  of 
with  delight  to  his  intimate  friends  when  he  himself  had  grown 
an  old  nian.^ 

The  boy  George  led  the  ordinary  life  of  working  people's  chil- 
dren. He  played  about  the  doors ;  went  bird-nesting  when  he 
could ;  and  ran  errands  to  the  village.  He  was  also  an  eager  list- 
ener, with  the  other  children,  to  his  father's  curious  tales,  and  he 
early  imbibed  from  him  his  affection  for  birds  and  animals.  In 
course  of  time  he  was  promoted  to  the  office  of  carrying  his  fa- 
ther's dinner  to  him  while  at  work,  and  at  home  he  helped  to 
nurse  his  younger  brothers  and  sisters.  One  of  his  earliest  du- 
ties was  to  see  that  the  other  children  were  kept  out  of  the  way 
of  the  chaldron  wagons,  which  were  then  dragged  by  horses 
along  the  wooden  tram-road  immediately  in  front  of  the  cottage 
door. 

This  wagon-way  was  the  first  in  the  northern  district  on  wrhich 
the  experiment  of  a  locomotive  engine  was  tried.  But,  at  the 
time  of  which  we  speak,  the  locomotive  had  scarcely  been  dreamt 
of  in  England  as  a  practicable  working  power ;  horses  only  were 
used  to  haul  the  coal ;  and  one  of  the  first  sights  with  which  the 
boy  was  familiar  was  the  coal-wagons  dragged  by  them  along  the 
wooden  railway  at  "Wylam. 

Thus  eight  years  passed ;  after  which,  the  coal  having  been 
worked  out  on  the  north  side,  the  old  engine,  which  had  grown 


CHAP.  I.]  SISTER  NELL'S  BONNET.  107 

"  dismal  to  look  at,"  as  an  old  workman  described  it,  was  pulled 
down ;  and  then  old  Robert,  having  obtained  employment  as  a 
fireman  at  the  Dewley  Burn  Colliery,  removed  with  his  family  to 
that  place. 

Dewley  Burn,  at  this  day,  consists  of  a  few  old-fashioned,  low- 
roofed  cottages  standing  on  either  side  of  a  babbling  little  stream. 
They  are  connected  by  a  rustic  wooden  bridge,  which  spans  the 
rift  in  front  of  the  doors.  In  the  central  one-roomed  cottage  of 
this  group,  on  the  right  bank,  Robert  Stephenson  lived  for  a  time 
with  his  family,  the  pit  at  which  he  worked  standing  in  the  rear 
of  the  cottages. 

Young  though  he  was,  George  was  now  of  an  age  to  be  able  to 
contribute  something  toward  the  family  maintenance ;  for,  in  a 
poor  man's  house,  every  child  is  a  burden  until  his  little  hands 
can  be  turned  to  profitable  account.  That  the  bo^  was  shrewd 
and  active,  and  possessed  of  a  ready  mother-wit,  will  be  evident 
enough  from  the  following  incident.  One  day  his  sister  Nell 
went  into  Newcastle  to  buy  a  bonnet,  and  Geordie  went  with  her 
"for  company."  At  a  draper's  shop  in  the  Bigg  Market  Nell 
found  a  "  chip"  quite  to  her  mind,  but  on  pricing  it,  alas !  it  was 
found  to  be  fifteen  pence  beyond  her  means.  Girl-like,  she  had 
set  her  mind  upon  that  bonnet,  and  no  other  would  please  her. 
She  accordingly  left  the  shop  very  much  dejected.  But  Geordie 
said, "  Never  heed,  Nell ;  come  wi'  me,  and  I'll  see  if  I  canna  win 
siller  enough  to  buy  the  bonnet ;  stand  ye  there  till  I  come  back." 
Away  ran  the  boy,  and  disappeared  amid  the  throng  of  the  mar- 
ket, leaving  the  girl  to  wait  his  return.  Long  and  long  she  wait- 
ed, until  it  grew  dusk,  and  the  market-people  had  nearly  all  left. 
She  had  begun  to  despair,  and  fears  crossed  her  mind  that  Geor- 
die must  have  been  run  over  and  killed,  when  at  last  up  he  came 
running,  almost  breathless.  "  I've  gotten  the  siller  for  the  bon- 
net, Nell !"  cried  he.  "  Eh,  Geordie !"  she  said, "  but  hoo  hae  ye 
gotten  it  ?"  "  Hauddin  the  gentlemen's  horses !"  was  the  exult- 
ant reply.  The  bonnet  was  forthwith  bought,  and  the  two  re- 
turned to  Dewley  in  triumph. 

George's  first  regular  employment  was  of  a  very  humble  sort. 
A  widow,  named  Grace  Ainslie,  then  occupied  the  neighboring 
farm-house  of  Dewley.  She  kept  a  number  of  cows,  and  had  the 
privilege  of  grazing  them  along  the  wagon-ways.  She  needed  a 


108  GEORGE  STEPHENSON'S  EARLY  YEARS.         [PART  II. 

boy  to  herd  the  cows,  to  keep  them  out  of  the  way  of  the  wagons, 
and  prevent  their  straying  or  trespassing  on  the  neighbors'  "  lib- 
erties ;"  the  boy's  duty  was  also  to  bar  the  gates  at  night  after  all 
the  wagons  had  passed.  George  petitioned  for  this  post,  and,  to 
his  great  joy,  he  was  appointed,  at  the  wage  of  twopence  a  day. 

It  was  light  employment,  and  he  had  plenty  of  spare  time  on 
his  hands,  which  he  spent  in  bird-nesting,  making  whistles  out  of 
reeds  and  scrannel  straws,  and  erecting  Liliputian  mills  in  the  lit- 
tle water-streams  that  ran  into  the  Dewley  bog.  But  his  favor- 
ite amusement  at  this  early  age  was  erecting  clay  engines  in  con- 
junction with  his  playmate,  Bill  Thirlwall.  The  place  is  still 
pointed  out  where  the  future  engineers  made  their  first  essays  in 
modeling.  The  boys  found  the  clay  for  their  engines  in  the  ad- 
joining bog,  and  the  hemlocks  which  grew  about  supplied  them 
with  imaginary  steam-pipes.  They  even  proceeded  to  make  a 
miniature  winding-machine  in  connection  with  their  engine,  and 
the  apparatus  was  erected  upon  a  bench  in  front  of  the  Thirl- 
walls'  cottage.  Their  corves  were  made  out  of  hollowed  corks ; 
their  ropes  were  supplied  by  twine  ;•  and  a  few  bits  of  wood 
gleaned  from  the  refuse  of  the  carpenters'  shop  completed  their 
materials.  With  this  apparatus  the  boys  made  a  show  of  send- 
ing the  corves  down  the  pit  and  drawing  them  up  again,  much  to 
the  marvel  of  the  pitmen.  But  some  mischievous  person  about 
the  place  seized  the  opportunity  early  one  morning  of  smashing 
the  fragile  machinery,  greatly  to  the  grief  of  the  young  engi- 
neers. We  may  mention,  in  passing,  that  George's  companion 
afterward  became  a  workman  of  repute,  and  creditably  held  the 
office  of  engineer  at  Shilbottle,  near  Alnwick,  for  a  period  of 
nearly  thirty  years. 

As  Stephenson  grew  older  and  abler  to  work,  he  was  set  to 
lead  the  horses  when  plowing,  though  scarce  big  enough  to  stride 
across  the  furrows ;  and  he  used  afterward  to  say  that  he  rode  to 
his  work  in  the  mornings  at  an  hour  when  most  other  children  of 
his  age  were  asleep  in  their  beds.  He  was  also  employed  to  hoe 
turnips,  and  do  similar  farm-work,  for  which  he  was  paid  the  ad- 
vanced wage  of  f ourpence  a  day.  But  his  highest  ambition  was 
to  be  taken  on  at  the  colliery  where  his  father  worked ;  and  he 
shortly  joined  his  elder  brother  James  there  as  a  "  corf -bitter,"  or 
"  picker,"  to  clear  the  coal  of  stones,  bats,  and  dross.  His  wages 


CHAP.  I.]  APPOINTED  GIN-DRIVER.     /  109 

were  then  advanced  to  sixpence  a  day,  and  afterward  to  eight- 
pence  when  he  was  sent  to  drive  the  gin-horse. 

Shortly  after,  George  went  to  Black  Callerton  Colliery  to  drive 
the  gin  there ;  and,  as  that  colliery  lies  about  two  miles  across  the 
fields  from  Dewley  Burn,  the  boy  walked  that  distance  early  in 
the  morning  to  his  work,  returning  home  late  in  the  evening.  One 
of  the  old  residents  at  Black  Callerton,  who  remembered  him  at 
"that  time,  described  him  to  the  author  as  "a  grit  growing  lad, 
with  bare  legs  an'  feet ;"  adding  that  he  was  "  very  quick-witted, 
and  full  of  fun  and  tricks :  indeed,  there  was  nothing  under  the 
sun  but  he  tried  to  imitate."  He  was  usually  foremost  also  in 
the  sports  and  pastimes  of  youth. 

Among  his  first  strongly  developed  tastes  was  the  love  of  birds 
and  animals,  which  he  inherited  from  his  father.  Blackbirds 
were  his  special  favorites.  The  hedges  between  Dewley  and 
Black  Callerton  were  capital  bird-nesting  places,  and  there  was 
not  a  nest  there  that  he  did  not  know  of.  When  the  young  birds 
were  old  enough,  he  would  bring  them  home  with  him,  feed 
them,  and  teach  them  to  fly  about  the  cottage  unconfined  by 
cages.  One  of  his  blackbirds  became  so  tame  that-,  after  flying 
about  the  doors  all  day,  and  in  and  out  of  the  cottage,  it  would 
take  up  its  roost  upon  the  bed-head  at  night.  And,  most  singu- 
lar of  all,  the  bird  would  disappear  in  the  spring  and  summer 
months,  when  it  was  supposed  to  go  into  the  woods  to  pair  and 
rear  its  young,  after  which  it  would  reappear  at  the  cottage,  and 
resume  its  social  habits  during  the  winter.  This  went  on  for 
several  years.  George  had  also  a  stock  of  tame  rabbits,  for 
which  he  built  a  little  house  behind  the  cottage,  and  for  many 
years  he  continued  to  pride  himself  upon  the  superiority  of  his 
breed. 

After  he  had  driven  the  gin  for  some  time  at  Dewley  and 
Black  Callerton,  he  was  taken  on  as  assistant  to  his  father  in  fir- 
ing the  engine  at  Dewley.  This  was  a  step  of  promotion  which 
he  had  anxiously  desired,  his  only  fear  being  lest  he  should  be 
found  too  young  for  the  work.  Indeed,  he  afterward  used  to  re- 
late how  he  Avas  wont  to  hide  himself  when  the  owner  of  the  col- 
liery went  round,  in  case  he  should  be  thought  too  little  a  boy  to 
earn  the  wages  paid  him.  Since  he  had  modeled  his  clay  en- 
gines in  the  bog,  his  young  ambition  was  to  be  an  engine-man ; 


110 


APPOINTED  ASSISTANT  FIREMAN. 


[PART  II. 


and  to  be  an  assistant  fireman  was  the  first  step  toward  this  posi- 
tion. Great,  therefore,  was  his  joy  when,  at  about  fourteen  years 
of  age,  he  was  appointed  assistant  fireman,  at  the  wage  of  a  shil- 
ling a  day. 

But  the  coal  at  Dewley  Burn  being  at  length  worked  out,  the 
pit  was  ordered  to  be  "  laid  in,"  and  old  Kobert  and  his  family 
were  again  under  the  necessity  of  shifting  their  home ;  for,  to  use 
the  common  phrase,  they  must "  follow  the  wark." 


NEWBUBN  ON  THE  TTNE.      [By  R.  P.  Leitch.] 

CHAPTER  II. 

NEWBURN   AND-  CALLEKTON GEOKGE    STEPHENSON   LEAKNS   TO   BE 

AN   ENGINE-MAN. 

ON  quitting  their  humble  home  at  Dewley  Burn,  the  Stephen- 
son  family  removed  to  a  place  called  Jolly's  Close,  a  few  miles  to 
the  south,  close  behind  the  village  of  Newburn,  where  another 
coal-mine  belonging  to  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  called  "  the 
Duke's  Winnin,"  had  recently  been  opened  out. 

One  of  the  old  persons  in  the  neighborhood,  who  knew  the 
family  well,  describes  the  dwelling  in  which  they  lived  as  a  poor 
cottage  of  only  one  room,  in  which  the  father,  mother,  four  sons, 
and  two  daughters  lived  and  slept.  It  was  crowded  with  three 
low-poled  beds.  The  one  apartment  served  for  parlor,  kitchen, 
sleeping-room,  and  all. 

The  children  of  the  Stephenson  family  were  now  growing 
apace,  and  several  of  them  were  old  enough  to  be  able  to  earn 
money  at  various  kinds  of  colliery  work.  James  and  George, 


112 


APPOINTED  FIREMAN.  [PART  II. 


the  two  eldest  sons,  worked  as  assistant  firemen ;  and  the  younger 
boys  worked  as  wheelers  or  pickers  on  the  bank-tops ;  while  the 
two  girls  helped  their  mother  with  the  household  work. 

Other  workings  of  the  coal  were  opened  out  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  to  one  of  these  George  was  removed  as  fireman  on  his 
own 'account.  This  was  called  the  "Mid  Mill  Winnin,"  where 
he  had  for  his  mate  a  young  man  named  Coe.  They  worked  to- 
gether there  for  about  two  years,  by  twelve-hour  shifts,  George 
firing  the  engine  at  the  wage  of  a  shilling  a  day.  He  was  now 
fifteen  years  old.  His  ambition  was  as  yet  limited  to  attaining 
the  standing  of  a  full  workman,  at  a  man's  wages,  and  with  that 
view  he  endeavored  to  attain  such  a  knowledge  of  his  engine  as 
would  eventually  lead  to  his  employment  as  engine-man,  with  its 
accompanying  advantage  of  higher  pay.  He  was  a  steady,  sober, 
hard-working  young  man,  but  nothing  more  in  the  estimation  of 
his  fellow-workmen. 

One  of  his  favorite  pastimes  in  by-hours  was  trying  feats  of 
strength  with  his  companions.  Although  in  frame  he  was  not 
particularly  robust,  yet  he  was  big  and  bony,  and  considered  very 
strong  for  his  age.  At  throwing  the  hammer  George  had  no 
compeer.  At  lifting  heavy  weights  off  the  ground  from  between 
his  feet,  by  means  of  a  bar  of  iron  passed  through  them — placing 
the  bar  against  his  knees  as  a  fulcrum,  and  then  straightening  his 
spine  and  lifting  them  sheer  up — he  was  also  very  successful. 
On  one  occasion  he  lifted  as  much  as  sixty  stones'  weight — a 
striking  indication  of  his  strength  of  bone  and  muscle. 

When  the  pit  at  Mid  Mill  was  closed,  George  and  his  compan- 
ion Coe  were  sent  to  work  another  pumping-engine  erected  near 
Throckley  Bridge,  where  they  continued  for  some  months.  It 
was  while  working  at  this  place  that  his  wages  were  raised  to  12s. 
a  week — an  event  to  him  of  great  importance.  On  coming  out 
of  the  foreman's  oiSce  that  Saturday  evening  on  which  he  re- 
ceived the  advance,  he  announced  the  fact  to  his  fellow-work- 
men, adding  triumphantly, "  I  am  now  a  made  man  for  life !" 

The  pit  opened  at  Newburn,  at  which  old  Eobert  Stephenson 
worked,  proving  a  failure,  it  was  closed,  and  a  new  pit  was  sunk 
at  Water-row,  on  a  strip  of  land  lying  between  the  Wylam  wag- 
on-way and  the  Eiver  Tyne,  about  half  a  mile  west  of  Newburn 
Church.  A  pumping-engine  was  erected  there  by  Eobert  Haw- 


CHAP.  H.]        FASCINATTON  OF  THE  STEAM-ENGINE.  113 

thorn,  the  duke's  engineer,  and  old  Stephenson  went  to  work  it 
as  fireman,  his  son  George  acting  as  the  engine-man  or  plugman. 
At  that  time  he  was  about  seventeen  years  old — a  very  youthful 
age  at  which  to  fill  so  responsible  a  post.  He  had  thus  already 
got  ahead  of  his  father  in  his  station  as  a  workman ;  for  the  plug- 
man  holds  a  higher  grade  than  the  fireman,  requiring  more  prac- 
tical knowledge  and  skill,  and  usually  receiving  higher  wages. 

George's  duties  as  plugman  were  to  watch  the  engine,  to  see 
that  it  kept  well  in  work,  and  that  the  pumps  were  efficient  in 
drawing  the  water.  When  the  water-level  in  the  pit  was  lower- 
ed, and  the  suction  became  incomplete  through  the  exposure  of 
the  suction-holes,  it  was  then  his  duty  to  proceed  to  the  bottom 
of  the  shaft  and  plug  the  tube  so  that  the  pump  should  draw : 
hence  the  designation  of  "  plugman."  If  a  stoppage  in  the  en- 
gine took  place  through  any  defect  which  he  was  incapable  of 
remedying,  it  was  his  duty  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  chief  engineer 
to  set  it  to  rights. 

But  from  the  time  that  George  Stephenson  was  appointed  fire- 
man, and  more  particularly  afterward  as  engine-man,  he  applied 
himself  so  assiduously  and  successfully  to  the  study  of  the  engine 
and  its  gearing — taking  the  machine  to  pieces  in  his  leisure  hours 
for  the  purpose  of  cleaning  it  and  understanding  its  various  parts 
— that  he  soon  acquired  a  thorough  practical  knowledge  of  its 
construction  and  mode  of  working,  and  very  rarely  needed  to  call 
the  engineer  of  the  colliery  to  his  aid.  His  engine  became  a  sort 
of  pet  -with  him,  and  he  was  never  wearied  of  watching  and  in- 
specting it  with  admiration. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  peculiar  fascination  about  an  engine  to  the 
person  whose  duty  it  is  to  watch  and  work  it.  It  is  almost  sub- 
lime in  its  untiring  industry  and  quiet  power ;  capable  of  per- 
forming the  most  gigantic  work,  yet  so  docile  that  a  child's  hand 
may  guide  it.  No  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  workman  who  is 
the  daily  companion  of  this  life-like  machine,  and  is  constantly 
watching  it  with  anxious  care,  at  length  comes  to  regard  it  with 
a  degree  of  personal  interest  and  regard.  This  daily  contempla- 
tion of  the  steam-engine,  and  the  sight  of  its  steady  action,  is  an 
education  of  itself  to  an  ingenious  and  thoughtful  man.  And  it 
is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  nearly  all  that  has  been  done  for  the 
improvement  of  this  machine  has  been  accomplished,  not  by  phi- 
H 


114  STEPHENSON' S  EARLY  EXPERIMENTS.         [PAET  II. 

losophers  and  scientific  men,  but  by  laborers,  mechanics,  and  en- 
gine-men. Indeed,  it  would  appear  as  if  this  were  one  of  the  de- 
pajtments  of  practical  science  in  which  the  higher  powers  of  the 
human  mind  must  bend  to  mechanical  instinct. 

Stephenson  was  now  in  his  eighteenth  year,  but,  like  many  of 
his  fellow-workmen,  he  had  not  yet  learned  to  read.  All  that  he 
could  do  was  to  get  some  one  to  read  for  him  by  his  engine-fire, 
out  of  any  book  or  stray  newspaper  which  found  its  way  into  the 
neighborhood.  Bonaparte  was  then  overrunning  Italy,  and  as- 
tounding Europe  by  his  brilliant  succession  of  victories ;  and  there 
was  no  more  eager  auditor  of  his  exploits,  as  read  from  the  news- 
paper accounts,  than  the  young  engine-man  at  the  Water-row  Pit. 

There  were  also  numerous  stray  bits  of  information  and  intel- 
ligence contained  in  these  papers  which  excited  Stephenson's  in- 
terest. One  of  them  related  to  the  Egyptian  method  of  hatching 
birds'  eggs  by  means  of  artificial  heat.  Curious  about  every  tiling 
relating  to  birds,  he  determined  to  test  it  by  experiment.  It  was 
spring  time,  and  he  forthwith  went  bird-nesting  in  the  adjoining 
woods  and  hedges.  He  gathered  a  collection  of  eggs  of  various 
sorts,  set  them  in  flour  in  a  warm  place  in  the  engine-house,  cov- 
ered the  whole  with  wool,  and  waited  the  issue.  The  heat  was 
kept  as  steady  as  possible,  and  the  eggs  were  carefully  turned  ev- 
ery twelve  hours ;  but,  though  they  chipped,  and  some  of  them 
exhibited  well-grown  chicks,  they 'never  hatched.  The  experi- 
ment failed,  but  the  incident  shows  that  the  inquiring  mind  of 
the  youth  was  fairly  at  work. 

Modeling  of  engines  in  clay  continued  to  be  another  of  his  fa- 
vorite occupations.  He  made  models  of  engines  which  he  had 
seen,  and  of  others  which  were  described  to  him.  These  attempts 
were  an  improvement  upon  his  first  trials  at  Dewley  Burn  bog, 
when  occupied  there  as  a  herd-boy.  He  was,  however,  anxious  to 
know  something  of  the  wonderful  engines  of  Boulton  and  Watt, 
and  was  told  that  they  were  to  be  found  fully  described  in  books, 
which  he  must  search  for  information  as  to  their  construction,  ac- 
tion, and  uses.  But,  alas !  Stephenson  could  not  read ;  he  had  not 
yet  learned  even  his  letters. 

Thus  he  shortly  found,  when  gazing  wistfully  in  the  direction 
of  knowledge,  that  to  advance  farther  as  a  skilled  workman,  he 
must  master  this  wonderful  art  of  reading — the  key  to  so  many 


CHAP.  II.]  STEPHENSON  GOES  TO  SCHOOL.  115 

other  arts.  Only  thus  could  he  gain  an  access  to  books,  the  de- 
positories of  the  wisdom  and  experience  of  the  past.  Although 
a  grown  man,  and  doing  the  work  of  a  man,  he  was  not  ashamed 
to  confess  his  ignorance,  and  go  to  school,  big  as  he  was,  to  learn 
his  letters.  Perhaps,  too,  he  foresaw  that,  in  laying  out  a  little  of 
his  spare  earnings  for  this  purpose,  he  was  investing  money  judi- 
ciously, and  that,  in  every  hour  he  spent  at  school,  he  was  really 
working  for  better  wages. 

His  first  schoolmaster  was  Robin  Cowens,  a  poor  teacher  in  the 
village  of  Walbottle.  He  kept  a  night-school,  which  was  attend- 
ed by  a  few  of  the  colliers'  and  laborers'  sons  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. George  took  lessons  in  spelling  and  reading  three  nights 
in  the  week.  Robin  Cowen's  teaching  cost  threepence  a  week; 
and  though  it  was  not  very  good,  yet  George,  being  hungry  for 
knowledge  and  eager  to  acquire  it,  soon  learned  to  read.  He  also 
practiced  "  pot-hooks,"  and  at  the  age  of  nineteen  he  was  proud 
to  be  able  to  write  his  own  name." 

A  Scotch  dominie,  named  Andrew  Robertson,  set  up  a  night- 
school  in  the  village  of  Newburn  in  the  winter  of  1799.  It  was 
more  convenient  for  George  to  attend  this  school,  as  it  was  near- 
er his  work,  being  only  a  few  minutes'  walk  from  Jolly's  Close. 
Besides,  Andrew  had  the  reputation  of  being  a  good  arithmeti- 
cian, and  this  was  a  branch  of  knowledge  that  Stephenson  was 
very  desirous  of  acquiring.  He  accordingly  began  taking  lessons 
from  him,  paying  fourpence  a  week.  Robert  Gray,  junior  fire- 
man at  the  Water-row  Pit,  began  arithmetic  at  the  same  time ; 
and  Gray  afterward  told  the  author  that  George  learned  "  figur- 
ing" so  much  faster  than  he  did,  that  he  could  not  make  out  how 
it  was — "  he  took  to  figures  so  wonderful."  Although  the  two 
started  together  from  the  same  point,  at  the  end  of  the  winter 
George  had  mastered  "  reduction,"  while  Robert  Gray  was  still 
straggling  with  the  difficulties  of  simple  division.  But  George's 
secret  was  liis  perseverance.  He  worked  out  the  sums  in  his  by- 
hours,  improving  every  minute  of  his  spare  time  by  the  engine- 
fire,  there  studying  the  arithmetical  problems  set  for  him  upon 
his  slate  by  the  master.  In  the  evenings  he  took  to  Robertson 
the  sums  which  he  had  "  worked,"  and  new  ones  were  "  set"  for 
him  to  study  out  the  following  day.  Thus  his  progress  was  rap- 
id, and,  with  a  willing  heart  and  mind,  he  soon  became  well  ad- 


116  LEARNS  ENGINE-BRAKEING.  [PART  II. 

vanced  in  arithmetic.  Indeed,  Andrew  Eobertson  became  very 
proud  of  his  scholar ;  and  shortly  after,  when  the  Water-row  Pit 
was  closed,  and  George  removed  to  Black  Callerton  to  work  there, 
the  poor  schoolmaster,  not  having  a  very  extensive  connection  in 
Newburn,  went  with  his  pupils,  and  set  up  his  night-school  at 
Black  Callerton,  where  he  continued  his  lessons. 

George  still  found  time  to  attend  to  his  favorite  animals  while 
working  at  the  Water-row  Pit.  .Like  his  father,  he  used  to  tempt 
the  robin-redbreasts  to  hop  and  fly  about  him  at  the  engine-fire 
by  the  bait  of  bread-crumbs  saved  from  his  dinner.  But  his  chief 
favorite  was  his  dog — so  sagacious  that  he  almost  daily  carried 
George's  dinner  to  him  at  the  pit.  The  tin  containing  the  meal 
was  suspended  from  the  dog's  neck,  and,  thus  laden,  he  proceed- 
ed faithfully  from  Jolly's  Close  to  Water-row  Pit,  quite  through 
the  village  of  Newburn.  He  turned  neither  to  left  nor  right,  nor 
heeded  the  barking  of  curs  at  his  heels.  But  his  course  was  not 
unattended  with  perils.  One  day  the  big,  strange  dog  of  a  pass- 
ing butcher,  espying  the  engine-man's  messenger  with  the  tin  can 
about  his  neck,  ran  after  and  fell  upon  him.  There  was  a  terri- 
ble tussle  and  worrying,  which  lasted  for  a  brief  while,  and,  short- 
ly after,  the  dog's  master,  anxious  for  his  dinner,  saw  his  faithful 
servant  approaching,  bleeding  but  triumphant.  The  tin  can  was 
still  round  his  neck,  but  the  dinner  had  been  spilled  in  the  strug- 
gle. Though  George  went  without  his  dinner  that  day,  he  was 
prouder  of  his  dog  than  ever  when  the  circumstances  of  the  com- 
bat were  related  to  him  by  the  villagers  who  had  seen  it. 

It  was  while  working  at  the  Water-row  Pit  that  Stephenson 
learned  the  art  of  brakeing  an  engine.  This  being  one  of  the 
higher  departments  of  colliery  labor,  and  among  the  best  paid, 
George  was  very  anxious  to  learn  it.  A  small  winding-engine 
liaving  been  put  up  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  the  coals  from 
the  pit,  Bill  Coe,  his  friend  and  fellow-workman,  was  appointed 
the  brakesman.  He  frequently  allowed  George  to  try  his  hand 
at  the  machine,  and  instructed  him  how  to  proceed.  Coe  was, 
however,  opposed  in  this  by  several  of  the  other  workmen,  one  of 
whom,  a  banksman  named  William  Locke,*  went  so  far  as  to 
stop  the  working  of  the  pit  because  Stephenson  had  been  called 

*  Father  of  Mr.  Locke,  M.P.,  the  engineer.  He  afterward  removed  to  Barnsley, 
in  Yorkshire. 


CHAP.  II.]        APPOINTED  BRAKESMAN— HIS  DUTIES.  117 

in  to  the  brake.  But  one  day,  as  Mr.  Charles  Nixon,  the  mana- 
ger of  the  pit,  was  observed  approaching,  Coe  adopted  an  expedi- 
ent which  put  a  stop  to  the  opposition.  He  called  upon  Stephen- 
son  to  "  come  into  the  brake-house  and  take  hold  of  the  machine." 
Locke,  as  usual,  sat  down,  and  the  working  of  the  pit  was  stopped. 
When  requested  by  the  manager  to  give  an  explanation,  he  said 
that  "young  Stephenson  couldn't  brake,  and,  what  was  more,  nev- 
er would  learn,  he  was  so  clumsy."  Mr.  Nixon,  however,  ordered 
Locke  to  go  on  with  the  work,  whick  he  did ;  and  Stephenson, 
after  some  farther  practice,  acquired  the  art  of  brakeing. 

After  working  at  the  Water-row  Pit  and  at  other  engines  near 
Newbum  for  about  three  years,  George  and  Coe  went  to  Black 
Callerton  early  in  1810.  Though  only  twenty  years  of  age,  his 
employers  thought  so  well  of  him  that  they  appointed  him  to  the 
responsible  office  of  brakesman  at  the  Dolly  Pit.  For  conven- 
ience' sake,  he  took  lodgings  at  a  small  farmer's  in  the  village, 
finding  his  own  victuals,  and  paying  so  much  a  week  for  lodging 
and  attendance.  In  the  locality  this  was  called  "  picklin  in  his 
awn  poke  neuk."  It  not  unfrequently  happens  that  the  young 
workman  about  the  collieries,  when  selecting  a  lodging,  contrives 
to  pitch  his  tent  where  the  daughter  of  the  house  ultimately  be- 
comes his  wife.  This  is  often  the  real  attraction  that  draws 
the  youth  from  home,  though  a  very  different  one  may  be  pre- 
tended. 

George  Stephenson's  duties  as  brakesman  may  be  briefly  de- 
scribed. The  work  was  somewhat  monotonous,  and  consisted  in 
superintending  the  working  of  the  engine  and  machinery  by 
means  of  which  the  coals  were  drawn  out  of  the  pit.  Brakes- 
men are  almost  invariably  selected  from  those  who  have  had  con- 
siderable experience  as  engine-firemen,  and  borne  a  good  charac- 
ter for  steadiness,  punctuality,  watchfulness,  and  "  mother  wit." 
In  George  Stephenson's  day  the  coals  were  drawn  out  of  the 
pit  in  corves,  or  large  baskets  made  of  hazel  rods.  The  corves 
were  placed  together  in  a  cage,  between  which  and  the  pit-ropes 
there  was  usually  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  of  chain.  The  ap- 
proach of  the  corves  toward  the  pit  mouth  was  signaled  by  a 
bell,  brought  into  action  by  a  piece  of  mechanism  worked  from 
the  shaft  of  the  engine.  When  the  bell  sounded,  the  brakesman 
checked  the  speed  by  taking  hold  of  the  hand-gear  connected 


llg  NIGHT  OCCUPATIONS.  [PABT  II. 

with  the  steam-valves,  which  were  so  arranged  that  by  their 
means  he  could  regulate  the  speed  of  the  engine,  and  stop  or  set 
it  in  motion  when  required.  Connected  with  the  fly-wheel  was 
a  powerful  wooden  brake,  acting  by  pressure  against  its  rim, 
something  like  the  brake  of  a  railway  carriage  against  its  wheels. 
On  catching  sight  of  the  cham  attached  to  the  ascending  corve- 
cage,  the  brakesman,  by  pressing  his  foot  upon  a  foot-step  near 
him,  was  enabled,  with  great  precision,  to  stop  the  revolutions  of 
the  wheel,  and  arrest  the  ascent  of  the  corves  at  the  pit  mouth, 
when  they  were  forthwith  landed  on  the  "  settle-board."  On  the 
full  corves  being  replaced  by  empty  ones,  it  was  then  the  duty  of 
the  brakesman  to  reverse  the  engine,  and  send  the  corves  down 
the  pit  to  be  filled  again. 

The  monotony  of  George  Stephenson's  occupation  as  a  brakes- 
man was  somewhat  varied  by  the  change  which  he  made,  in  his 
turn,  from  the  day  to  the  night  shift.  His  duty,  on  the  latter  oc- 
casions, consisted  chiefly  in  sending  men  and  materials  into  the 
mine,  and  in  drawing  other  men  and  materials  out.  Most  of  the 
workmen  enter  the  pit  during  the  night  shift,  and  leave  it  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  day,  while  coal-drawing  is  proceeding.  The  re- 
quirements of  the  work  at  night  are  such  that  the  brakesman  has 
a  good  deal  of  spare  time  on  his  hands,  which  he  is  at  liberty  to 
employ  in  his  own  way.  From  an  early  period,  George  was  ac- 
customed to  employ  those  vacant  night  hours  in  working  the  sums 
set  for  him  by  Andrew  Robertson  upon  his  slate,  practicing  writ- 
ing in  his  copy-book,  and  mending  the  shoes  of  his  fellow-work- 
men. His  wages  while  working  at  the  Dolly  Pit  amounted  to 
from  £1  15s.  to  £2  in  the  fortnight ;  but  he  gradually  added  to 
them  as  he  became  more  expert  at  shoe-mending,  and  afterward 
at  shoe-making. 

Probably  he  was  stimulated  to  take  in  hand  this  extra  work  by 
the  attachment  he  had  by  this  time  formed  for  a  young  woman 
named  Fanny  Henderson,  who  officiated  as  servant  in  the  small 
farmer's  house  in  which  he  lodged.  We  have  been  informed  that 
the  personal  attractions  of  Fanny,  though  these  were  considera- 
ble, were  the  least  of  her  charms.  Mr.  William  Fairbairn,  who 
afterward  saw  her  in  her  home  at  Willington  Quay,  describes  her 
as  a  very  comely  woman.  But  her  temper  was  one  of  the  sweet- 
est ;  and  those  who  knew  her  were  accustomed  to  speak  of  the 


CHAP.  II.]  NED  NELSON.  119 

charming  modesty  of  her  demeanor,  her  kindness  of  disposition, 
and,  withal,  her  sound  good  sense. 

Among  his  various  mendings  of  old  shoes  at  Callerton,  George 
was  on  one  occasion  favored  with  the  shoes  of  his  sweetheart  to 
sole.  One  can  imagine  the  pleasure  with  which  he  would  linger 
over  such  a  piece  of  work,  and  the  pride  with  which  he  would 
execute  it.  A  friend  of  his,  still  living,  relates  that,  after  he  had 
finished  the  shoes,  he  carried  them  about  with  him  in  his  pocket 
on  the  Sunday  afternoon,  and  that  from  time  to  time  he  would 
pull  them  out  and  hold  them  up,  exclaiming  "  what  a  capital  job 
he  had  made  of  them !" 

Not  long  after  he  began  to  work  at  Black  Callerton  as  brakes- 
man he  had  a  quarrel  with  a  pitman  named  Ned  Nelson,  a  roys- 
tering  bully,  who  was  the  terror  of  the  village.  Nelson  was  a 
great  fighter,  and  it  was  therefore  considered  dangerous  to  quar- 
rel with  him.  Stephenson  was  so  unfortunate  as  not  to  be  able 
to  please  this  pitman  by  the  way  in  which  he  drew  him  out  of 
the  pit,  and  Nelson  swore  at  him  grossly  because  of  the  alleged 
clumsiness  of  his  brakeing.  George  defended  himself,  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  testimony  of  the  other  workmen.  Nelson  had  not 
been  accustomed  to  George's  style  of  self-assertion,  and,  after  a 
great  deal  of  abuse,  he  threatened  to  kick  the  brakesman,  who 
defied  him  to  do  so.  Nelson  ended  by  challenging  Stephenson 
to  a  pitched  battle,  and  the  latter  accepted  the  challenge,  when  a 
day  was  fixed  on  which  the  fight  was  to  come  off. 

Great  was  the  excitement  at  Black  Callerton  when  it  was 
known  that  George  Stephenson  had  accepted  Nelson's  challenge. 
Every  body  said  he  would  be  killed.  The  villagers,  the  young 
men,  and  especially  the  boys  of  the  place,  with  whom  George  was 
a  great  favorite,  all  wished  that  he  might  beat  Nelson,  but  they 
scarcely  dared  to  say  so.  They  came  about  him  while  he  was  at 
work  in  the  engine-house  to  inquire  if  it  was  really  true  that  he 
was  "  goin'  to  fight  Nelson."  "  Ay ;  never  fear  for  me ;  I'll  fight 
him."  And  fight  him  he  did.  For  some  days  previous  to  the 
appointed  day  of  battle,  Nelson  went  entirely  off  work  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  himself  fresh  and  strong,  whereas  Stephenson 
went  on  doing  his  daily  work  as  usual,  and  appeared  not  in  the 
least  disconcerted  by  the  prospect  of  the  affair.  So,  on  the  even- 
ing appointed,  after  George  had  done  his  day's  labor,  he  went 


120 


FIGHT  WITH  THE  PITMAN. 


[PART  II. 


into  the  Dolly  Pit  Field,  where  his  already  exulting  rival  was 
ready  to  meet  him.  George  stripped,  and  "  went  in"  like  a  prac- 
ticed pugilist,  though  it  was  his  first  and  last  fight.  After  a  few 
rounds,  George's  wiry  muscles  and  practiced  strength  enabled  him 
severely  to  punish  his  adversary  and  to  secure  an  easy  victory. 

This  circumstance  is  related  in  illustration  of  Stephenson's  per- 
sonal pluck  and  courage,  and  it  was  thoroughly  characteristic  of 
the  man.  He  was  no  pugilist,  and  the  reverse  of  quarrelsome. 
But  he  would  not  be  put  down  by  the  bully  of  the  colliery,  and 
he  fought  him.  There  his  pugilism  ended ;  they  afterward  shook 
hands,  and  continued  good  friends.  In  after  life  Stephenson's 
mettle  was  often  as  hardly  tried,  though  in  a  different  way,  and 
he  did  not  fail  to  exhibit  the  same  courage  in  contending  with 
the  bullies  of  the  railway  world  as  he  showed  in  his  encounter 
with  Ned  Nelson,  the  fighting  pitman  of  Callerton. 


BTEPIIENBON'S  COTTAGE  AT  WILLINGTON  QUAY.    [By  R.  P.  Leitcb.] 

CHAPTEK  III. 

ENGIKE-MAN   AT  WILLINGTON   QUAY  AND   KILLINGWOBTH. 

GEOKGE  STEPHENSON  had  now  acquired  the  character  of  an  ex- 
pert workman.  He  was  diligent  and  observant  while  at  work, 
and  sober  and  studious  when  the  day's  work  was  done.  His 
friend  Coe  described  him  to  the  author  as  "a  standing  example 
of  manly  character."  On  pay-Saturday  afternoons,  when  the  pit- 
men held  their  fortnightly  holiday,  occupying  themselves  chiefly 
in  cock-fighting  and  dog-fighting  in  the  adjoining  fields,  followed 
by  adjournments  to  the  "yel-house,"  George  was  accustomed  to 
take  his  engine  to  pieces,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  "  insight," 
and  he  cleaned  all  the  parts  and  put  the  machine  in  thorough 
working  order  before  leaving  her.  His  amusements  continued 
to  be  principally  of  the  athletic  kind,  and  he  found  few  that 
could  beat  him  at  lifting  heavy  weights,  leaping,  and  throwing 
the  hammer. 

In  the  evenings  he  improved  himself  in  the  arts  of  reading  and 
writing,  and  occasionally  he  took  a  turn  at  modeling.  It  was  at 
Callerton,  his  son  Robert  informed  us,  that  he  began  to  try  his 


122  ENGINE-MAN  AT  WILLINGTON  QUAY.  [PART  II. 

hand  at  original  invention,  and  for  some  time  he  'applied  his  at- 
tention to  a  machine  of  the  nature  of  an  engine-brake,  which  re- 
versed itself  by  its  own  action.  But  nothing  came  of  the  con- 
trivance, and  it  was  eventually  thrown  aside  as  useless.  Yet  not 
altogether  so ;  for  even  the  highest  skill  must  undergo  the  inevi- 
table discipline  of  experiment,  and  submit  to  the  wholesome  cor- 
rection of  occasional  failure. 

After  working  at  Callerton  for  about  two  years,  Stephenson  re- 
ceived an  offer  to  take  charge  of  the  engine  on  Willington  Bal- 
last Hill  at  an  advanced  wage.  He  determined  to  accept  it,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  marry  Fanny  Henderson,  and  begin  house- 
keeping on  his  own  account.  Though  he  was .  only  twenty-one 
years  old,  he  had  contrived,  by  thrift,  steadiness,  and  industry,  to 
save  as  much  money  as  enabled  him,  with  the  help  of  Fanny's 
small  hoard,  to  take  a  cottage  dwelling  at  Willington  Quay,  and 
furnish  it  in  a  humble  but  comfortable  style  for  the  reception  of 
his  bride. 

Willington  Quay  lies  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Tyne,  about  six 
miles  below  Newcastle.  It  consists  of  a  line  of  houses  straggling 
along  the  river  side,  and  high  behind  it  towers  up  the  huge  mound 
of  ballast  emptied  out  of  the  ships  which  resort  to  the  quay  for 
their  cargoes  of  coal  for  the  London  market.  The  ballast  is 
thrown  out  of  the  ships'  holds  into  wagons  laid  alongside.  When 
filled,  a  train  of  these  is  dragged  to  the  summit  of  the  Ballast 
Hill,  where  they  are  run  out,  and  their  contents  emptied  on  to 
the  monstrous  accumulation  of  earth,  chalk,  and  Thames  mud  al- 
ready laid  there,  probably  to  form  a  puzzle  for  future  antiquaries 
and  geologists  when  the  origin  of  these  immense  hills  along 
the  Tyne  has  been  forgotten.  At  the  foot  of  this  great  mound 
of  shot  rubbish  was  a  fixed  engine,  which  drew  the  trains  of 
laden  wagons  up  the  incline  by  means  of  ropes  working  over 
pulleys,  and  of  this  engine  George  Stephenson  acted  as  brakes- 
man. 

The  cottage  in  which  he  took  up  his  abode  was  a  small  two- 
storied  dwelling,  standing  a  little  back  from  the  quay,  with  a  bit 
of  garden  ground  in  front  ;*  but  he  only  occupied  the  upper 

*  The  Stephenson  Memorial  Schools  have  since  heen  erected  on  the  site  of  the  old 
cottage  at  Willington  Quay  represented  in  the  engraving  at  the  head  of  this  chapter. 
A  vignette  of  the  Memorial  Schools  will  be  found  at  the  end  of  the  volume. 


CHAP.  III.]  STEPHENSON'S  MARRIAGE.  123 

room  in  the  west  end  of  the  cottage.     Close  behind  rose  the  Bal- 
last Hill. 

When  the  cottage  dwelling  had  been  made  snug  and  was  ready 
for  his  wife's  reception,  the  marriage  took  place.  It  was  cele- 
brated in  Newburn  Church  on  the  28th  of  November,  1802. 
George  Stephenson's  signature,  as  it  stands  in  the  register,  is  that 
of  a  person  who  seems  to  have  just  learned  to  write.  With  all 
the  writer's  care,  however,  he  had  not  been  able  to  avoid  a  blotch. 
The  name  of  Frances  Henderson  has  the  appearance  of  being 
written  by  the  same  hand. 


iSr* 


After  the  ceremony,  George  and  his  newly -wedded  partner 
proceeded  to  the  house  of  old  Eobert  Stephenson  and  his  wife 
Mabel  at  Jolly  Close.  The  old  man  was  now  becoming  infirm, 
though  he  still  worked  as  an  engine-fireman,  and  contrived  wi^i 
difficulty  "  to  keep  his  head  above  water."  When  the  visit  had 
been  paid,  the  bridal  party  prepared  to  set  out  for  their  new 
home  at  Willington  Quay.  They  went  in  a  style  which  was  quite 
common  before  traveling  by  railway  had  been  invented.  Two 
farm-horses,  borrowed  from  a  neighboring  farmer,  were  each  pro- 
vided with  a  saddle  and  a  pillion,  and  George  having  mounted 
one,  his  wife  seated  herself  behind  him,  holding  on  by  her -arms 
round  his  waist.  The  brideman  and  bridemaid  in  like  manner 
mounted  the  other  horse,  and  in  this  wise  the  wedding  part}7  rode 
across  the  country,  passing  through  the  old  streets  of  Newcastle, 
and  then  by  Wallsend  to  Willington  Quay — a  long  ride  of  about 
fifteen  miles. 

George  Stephenson's  daily  life  at  Willington  was  that  of  a 
steady  workman.  By  the  manner,  however,  in  which  he  contin- 
ued to  improve  his  spare  hours  in  the  evening,  he  was  silently 
and  surely  paving  the  way  for  being  something  more  than  a  man- 
ual laborer.  He  diligently  set  himself  to  study  the  principles  of 


124  PERPETUAL  MOTION.— BALLAST-HEAVING.      [PART  II. 

mechanics,  and  to  master  the  laws  by  which  his  engine  worked. 
For  a  workman,  he  was  even  at  that  time  more  than  ordinarily 
speculative,  often  taking  up  strange  theories,  and  trying  to  sift 
out  the  truth  that  was  in  them.  While  sitting  by  the  side  of  his 
young  wife  in  his  cottage  dwelling  in  the  winter  evenings,  he  was 
usually  occupied  in  studying  mechanical  subjects  or  in  modeling 
experimental  machines. 

Among  his  various  speculations  while  at  Willington,  he  tried 
to  discover  a  means  of  Perpetual  Motion.  Although  he  failed, 
as  so  many  others  had  done  before  him,  the  very  efforts  he  made 
tended  to  whet  his  inventive  faculties  and  to  call  forth  his  dor- 
mant powers.  He  actually  went  so  far  as  to  construct  the  model 
of  a  machine  for  the  purpose.  It  consisted  of  a  wooden  wheel, 
the  periphery  of  which  was  furnished  with  glass  tubes  filled  with 
quicksilver ;  as  the  wheel  rotated,  the  quicksilver  poured  itself 
down  into  the  lower  tubes,  and  thus  a  sort  of  self-acting  motion 
was  kept  up  in  the  apparatus,  which,  however,  did  not  prove  to  be 
perpetual.  Where  he  had  first  obtained  the  idea  of  this  machine 
— whether  from  conversation,  or  reading,  or  his  own  thoughts,  is 
not  known ;  but  his  son  Kobert  was  of  opinion  that  he  had  heard 
of  an  apparatus  of  this  kind  as  described  in  the  "  History  of  In- 
Tfentions."  As  he  had  then  no  access  to  books,  and,  indeed,  could 
scarcely  yet  read,  it  is  probable  that  he  had  been  told  of  the  inven- 
tion, and  set  about  testing  its  value  according  to  his  own  methods. 

Much  of  his  spare  time  continued  to  be  occupied  by  labor  more 
immediately  profitable,  regarded  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view. 
In  the  evenings,  after  his  day's  labor  at  his  engine,  he  would  oc- 
casionally employ  himself  for  a  few  hours  in  casting  ballast  out 
of  the  collier  ships,  by  which  means  he  was  enabled  to  earn  a  few 
shillings  weekly.  Mr.  William  Fairbairn,  of  Manchester,  has  in- 
formed the  author  that,  while  Stephenson  was  employed  at  the 
Willington  Ballast  Hill,  he  himself  was  working  in  the  neighbor- 
hood as  an  engine  apprentice  at  the  Percy  Main  Colliery.  He 
was  very  fond  of  George,  who  was  a  fine,  hearty  fellow,  besides 
being  a  capital  workman.  In  the  summer  evenings  young  Fair- 
bairn  was  accustomed  to  go  down  to  Willington  to  see  his  friend, 
and  on  such  occasions  he  would  frequently  take  charge  of 
George's  engine  for  a  few  hours,  to  enable  him  to  take  a  two  or 
three  hours'  turn  at  heaving  ballast  out  of  the  ships'  holds.  It  is 


CHAP.  Ill]  AN  ACCIDENT.— CLOCK- C 


pleasant  to  think  of  the  future  President  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion thus  helping  the  future  Railway  Engineer  to  earn  a  few  ex- 
tra shillings  by  overwork  in  the  evenings,  at  a  time  when  both 
occupied  the  rank  but  of  humble  working  men  in  an  obscure 
northern  village. 

Mr.  Fairbairn  was  also  a  frequent  visitor  at  George's  cottage 
on  the  Quay,  where,  though  there  was  no  luxury,  there  was  com- 
fort, cleanness,  and  a  pervading  spirit  of  industry.  Even  at  home 
George  was  never  for  a  moment  idle.  When  there  was  no  bal- 
last to  heave,  he  took  in  shoes  to  mend ;  and  from  mending  he 
proceeded  to  making  them,  as  well  as  shoe-lasts,  in  which  he  was 
admitted  to  be  very  expert.  William  Coe,  who  continued  to  live 
at  Willington  in  1851,  informed  the  author  that  he  bought  a  pair 
of  shoes  from  George  Stephenson  for  7*.  6d.,  and  he  remembered 
that  they  were  a  capital  fit,  and  wore  very  well. 

But  an  accident  occurred  in  Stephenson's  household  about  this 
time  which  had  the  effect  of  directing  his  industry  into  a  new 
and  still  more  profitable  channel.  The  cottage  chimney  took  fire 
one  day  in  his  absence,  when  the  alarmed  neighbors,  rushing  in, 
threw  quantities  of  water  upon  the  flames ;  and  some,  in  their 
zeal,  even  mounted  the  ridge  of  the  house,  and  poured  buckets  of 
water  down  the  chimney.  The  fire  was  soon  put  out,  but  the 
house  was  thoroughly  soaked.  When  George  came  home,  he 
found  the  water  running  out  of  the  door,  every  thing  in  disorder, 
and  his  new  furniture  covered  with  soot.  The  eight-day  clock, 
which  hung  against  the  wall — one  of  the  most  highly-prized  ar- 
ticles in  the  house — was  seriously  damaged  by  the  steam  with 
which  the  room  had  been  filled.  Its  wheels  were  so  clogged  by 
the  dust  and  soot  that  it  was  brought  to  a  complete  stand-still. 

George  was  advised  to  send  the  article  to  the  clock-maker,  but 
that  would  cost  money ;  and  he  declared  that  he  would  repair  it 
himself — at  least  he  would  try.  The  clock  was  accordingly  taken 
to  pieces  and  cleaned ;  the  tools  which  he  had  been  accumula- 
ting for  the  purpose  of  constructing  his  Perpetual  Motion  machine 
readily  enabled  him  to  do  this,  and  he  succeeded  so  well  that, 
shortly  after,  the  neighbors  sent  him  their  clocks  to  clean,  and  he 
soon  became  one  of  the  most  expert  clock-cleaners  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. 

It  was  while  living  at  Willington  Quay  that  George  Stephen- 


126  A  "CREEP."  [PART  II. 

son's  only  son  was  born  on  the  16th  of  October,  1803.*  The 
child  was  from  the  first,  as  may  well  be  imagined,  a  great  favor- 
ite with  his  father,  and  added  much  to  the  happiness  of  his  even- 
ing hours.  George  Stephenson's  strong  "  philoprogenitiveness," 
as  phrenologists  call  it,  had  in  his  boyhood  expended  itself  on 
birds,  and  dogs,  and  rabbits,  and  even  on  the  poor  old  gin-horses 
which  he  had  driven  at  the  Callerton  Pit,  and  now  he  found  in 
his  child  a  more  genial  object  for  the  exercise  of  his  affection. 

The  christening  of  the  boy  took  place  in  the  school-house  at 
Wallsend,  the  old  parish  church  being  at  the  time  in  so  dilapida- 
ted a  condition  from  the  "  creeping"  or  subsidence  of  the  ground, 
consequent  upon  the  excavation  of  the  coal,  that  it  was  consider- 
ed dangerous  to  enter  it.f  On  this  occasion,  Robert  Gray  and 
Anne  Henderson,  who  had  officiated  as  brideman  and  bridemaid 
at  the  wedding,  came  over  again  to  Willington,  and  stood  godfa- 
ther and  godmother  to  little  Eobert,  as  the  child  was  named,  aft- 
er his  grandfather. 

After  working  for  about  three  years  as  a  brakesman  at  the 
Willington  machine,  George  Stephenson  was  induced  to  leave  his 
situation  there  for  a  similar  one  at  the  West  Moor  Colliery,  Kill- 
ingworth.  It  was  not  without  considerable  persuasion  that  he 
was  induced  to  leave  the  Quay,  as  he  knew  that  he  should  there- 
by give  up  the  chance  of  earning  extra  money  by  casting  ballast 
from  the  keels.  At  last,  however,  h£  consented,  in  the  hope  of 
making  up  the  loss  in  some  other  way. 

The  village  of  Killingworth  lies  about  seven  miles  north  of 
Newcastle,  and  is  one  of  the  best-known  collieries  in  that  neigh- 

*  No  register  was  made  of  Robert  Stephenson's  birth,  and  he  himself  was  in  doubt 
whether  he  was  born  in  October,  November,  or  December.  For  instance,  a  dinner 
was  given  to  him  by  the  contractors  of  the  London  and  Birmingham  Railway  on  the 
16th  of  November,  1839,  that  day  being  then  supposed  by  his  father  to  have  been  his 
birthday.  When  preparing  the  "  Life  of  George  Stephenson,"  Robert  stated  to  the 
author  that  the  16th  of  December  was  the  correct  day.  But,  after  the  book  had 
passed  through  four  editions,  he  desired  the  date  to  be  corrected  to  the  1 6th  of  Octo- 
ber, which,  on  the  whole,  he  thought  the  right  date,  and  it  was  so  altered  accordingly. 

t  The  congregation  in  a  church  near  Newcastle  were  one  Sunday  morning  plenti- 
fully powdered  with  chips  from  the  white  ceiling  of  the  church,  which  had  been  crept 
under,  being  above  an  old  mine.  "It  is  only  the  pit  a-creeping,"  said  the  parish 
clerk,  by  way  of  encouragement  to  the  people  to  remain.  But  it  would  not  do ;  for 
there  was  a  sudden  creep  out  of  the  congregation.  The  clerk  went  at  last,  with  a  pow- 
dered head,  crying  out,  "It's  only  a  creep."—"  Our  Coal-Fields  and  our  Coal-Pits." 


CHAP.  III.] 


DEATH  OF  HIS  WIFE. 


127 


WEST  MOOB  OOLLIEBY.      [By  K.  P.  Lfitch.] 

borhood.  The  workings  of  the  coal  are  of  vast  extent,  and  give 
employment  to  a  large  number  of  work-people.  To  this  place 
Stephenson  first  came  as  a  brakesman  about  the  end  of  1804.  He 
had  not  been  long  in  his  new  home  ere  his  wife  died  of  consump- 
tion, leaving  him  with  his  only  child  Robert.  George  deeply 
felt  the  loss,  for  his  wife  and  he  had  been  very  happy  together. 
Their  lot  had  been  sweetened  by  daily  successful  toil.  George 
had  been  hard-working,  and  his  wife  had  made  his  hearth  so 
bright  and  his  home  so  snug,  that  no  attraction  could  draw  him 
from  her  side  in  the  evening  hours.  But  this  domestic  happiness 
was  all  to  pass  away,  and  the  bereaved  husband  felt  for  a  time  as 
one  that  had  thenceforth  to  tread  the  journey  of  life  alone. 

Shortly  after  this  event,  while  his  grief  was  still  fresh,  he  re- 
ceived an  invitation  from  some  gentlemen  concerned  in  large 
spinning-works  near  Montrose,  in  Scotland,  to  proceed  thither 
and  superintend  the  working  of  one  of  Boulton  and  Watt's  en- 
gines. He  accepted  the  offer,  and  made  arrangements  to  leave 
Killingworth  for  a  time. 

Having  left  his  boy  in  charge  of  a  respectable  woman  who 
acted  as  his  housekeeper,  he  set  out  on  the  journey  to  Scotland 


128  RETURN  TO  KILLING  WORTH.  [PART  II. 

on  foot,  with  his  kit  upon  his  back.  While  working  at  Montrose, 
he  gave  a  striking  proof  of  that  practical  ability  in  contrivance 
for  which  he  was  afterward  so  distinguished.  It  appears  that 
the  water  required  for  the  purposes  of  his  engine,  as  well  as  for 
the  use  of  the  works,  was  pumped  from  a  considerable  depth,  be- 
ing supplied  from  the  adjacent  extensive  sand  strata.  The 
pumps  frequently  got  choked  by  the  sand  drawn  in  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  well  through  the  snore-holes,  or  apertures  through 
which  the  water  to  be  raised  is  admitted.  The  barrels  soon  be- 
came worn,  and  the  bucket  and  clack  leathers  destroyed,  so  that 
it  became  necessary  to  devise  a  remedy ;  and  with  this  object, 
the  engine-man  proceeded  to  adopt  the  following  simple  but 
original  expedient.  He  had  a  wooden  box  or  boot  made,  twelve 
feet  high,  which  he  placed  in  the  sump  or  well,  and  into  this  he 
inserted  the  lower  end  of  the  pump.  The  result  was,  that  the 
water  flowed  clear  from  the  outer  part  of  the  well  over  into  the 
boot,  and  was  drawn  up  without  any  admixture  of  sand,  and  the 
difficulty  was  thus  conquered.* 

During  his  stay  in  Scotland,  Stephenson,  being  paid  good 
wages,  contrived  to  save  a  sum  of  £28,  which  he  took  back  with 
him  to  Killingworth,  after  an  absence  of  about  a  year.  Longing 
to  get  back  to  his  kindred,  and  his  heart  yearning  for  the  boy 
whom  he  had  left  behind,  our  engine-man  bade  adieu  to  his  Mon- 
trose employers,  and  trudged  back  to  Killingworth  on  foot  as  he 
had  gone.  He  related  to  his  friend  Coe,  on  his  return,  that  when 
on  the  borders  of  Northumberland,  late  one  evening,  footsore 
and  wearied  with  his  long  day's  journey,  he  knocked  at  a  small 
farmer's  cottage  door,  and  requested  shelter  for  the  night.  It 
was  refused ;  and  then  he  entreated  that,  being  sore  tired  and 
unable  to  proceed  any  farther,  they  would  permit  him  to  lie 

*  This  incident  was  related  by  Robert  Stephenson  during  a  voyage  to  the  north  of 
Scotland  in  1857,  when  off  Montrose,  on  board  his  yacht  Titania;  and  the  reminis- 
cence was  immediately  communicated  to  the  author  by  the  late  Mr.  William  Kell,  of 
Gateshead,  who  was  present,  at  Mr.  Stephenson's  request,  as  being  worthy  of  inser- 
tion in  his  father's  biography.  Mr.  George  EUiott,  one  of  the  most  skilled  coal-view- 
ers in  the  North,  was  of  the  party,  and  expressed  his  admiration  at  the  ready  skill 
with  which  the  difficulty  had  been  overcome,  the  expedient  of  the  boot  being  then  un- 
known in  the  Northumberland  and  Durham  mines.  He  acknowledged  it  to  be  "a 
wrinkle,"  adding  that  its  application  would,  in  several  instances  within  his  own  knowl- 
edge, have  been  of  great  practical  value. 


CHAP.  III.]  AN  INCIDENT  AND  AN  ACCIDENT.  129 

down  in  the  out-house,  for  that  a  little  clean  straw  would  serve 
him.  The  farmer's  wife  appeared  at  the  door,  looked  at  the 
traveler,  then  retiring  with  her  husband,  the  two  confabulated  a 
little  apart,  and  finally  they  invited  Stephenson  into  the  cottage. 
Always  full  of  conversation  and  anecdote,  he  soon  made  himself 
at  home  in  the  farmer's  family,  and  spent  with  them  some  pleas- 
ant hours.  He  was  hospitably  entertained  for  the  night,  and 
when  he  left  the  cottage  in  the  morning,  he  pressed  them  to 
make  some  charge  for  his  lodging,  but  they  refused  to  accept 
any  recompense.  They  only  asked  him  to  remember  them  kind- 
ly, and  if  he  ever  came  that  way,  to  be  sure  and  call  again. 
Many  years  after,  when  Stephenson  had  become  a  thriving  man, 
he  did  not  forget  the  humble  pair  who  had  thus  succored  and 
entertained  him  on  his  way ;  he  sought  their  cottage  again  when 
age  had  silvered  their  hair ;  and  when  he  left  the  aged  couple  on 
that  occasion,  they  may  have  been  reminded  of  the  old  saying 
that  we  may  sometimes  "  entertain  angels  unawares." 

Keaching  home,  Stephenson  found  that  his  father  had  met 
with  a  serious  accident  at  the  Blucher  Pit,  which  had  reduced 
him  to  great  distress  and  poverty.  While  engaged  in  the  inside 
of  an  engine,  making  some  repairs,  a  fellow-workman  inadvert- 
ently let  in  the  steam  upon  him.  The  blast  struck  him  full  in 
the  face ;  he  was  terribly  scorched,  and  his  eyesight  was  irretriev- 
ably lost.  The  helpless  and  infirm  man  had  struggled  for  a  time 
with  poverty ;  his  sons  who  were  at  home,  poor  as  himself,  were 
little  able  to  help  him,  while  George  was  at  a  distance  in  Scot- 
'  land.  On  his  return,  however,  with  his  savings  in  his  pocket,  his 
first  step  was  to  pay  off  his  father's  debts,  amounting  to  about 
£15  ;  and,  shortly  after,  he  removed  the  aged  pair  from  Jolly's 
Close  to  a  comfortable  cottage  adjoining  the  tram-road  near  the 
West  Moor  at  Killingworth,  where  the  old  man  lived  for  many 
years,  supported  by  his  son. 

Stephenson  was  again  taken  on  as  a  brakesman  at  the  West 
Moor  Pit.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  been  very  hopeful  as  to 
his  prospects  in  life  at  the  time.  Indeed,  the  condition  of  the 
working  classes  was  then  very  discouraging.  England  was  en- 
gaged in  a  great  war,  which  pressed  upon  the  industry,  and  se- 
verely tried  the  resources  of  the  country.  Heavy  taxes  were  im- 
posed upon  all  the  articles  of  consumption  that  would  bear  them. 

I 


130  MEDITATES  EMIGRATION.  [PART  II. 

There  was  a  constant  demand  for  men  to  fill  the  army,  navy,  and 
militia.  Never  before  had  England  witnessed  such  drumming 
and  fifing  for  recruits.  In  1805,  the  gross  forces  of  the  United 
Kingdom  amounted  to  nearly  700,000  men,  and  early  in  1808 
Lord  Castlereagh  carried  a  measure  for  the  establishment  of  a 
local  militia  of  200,000  men.  These  measures  were  accompanied 
by  general  distress  among  the  laboring  classes.  There  were  riots 
in  Manchester,  Newcastle,  and  elsewhere,  through  scarcity  of 
work  and  lowness  of  wages.  The  working  people  were  also  lia- 
ble to  be  pressed  for  the  navy,  or  drawn  for  the  militia ;  and 
though  people  could  not  fail  to  be  discontented  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, they  scarcely  dared  even  to  mutter  their  discontent 
to  their  neighbors. 

George  Stephenson  was  one  of  those  drawn  for  the  militia. 
He  must  therefore  either  quit  his  work  and  go  a-soldiering,  or 
find  a  substitute.  He  adopted  the  latter  course,  and  borrowed 
£6,  which,  with  the  remainder  of  his  savings,  enabled  him  to 
provide  a  militia-man  to  serve  in  his  stead.  Thus  the  whole  of 
his  hard- won  earnings  were  swept  away  at  a  stroke.  He  was  al- 
most in  despair,  and  contemplated  the  idea  of  leaving  the  coun- 
try, and  emigrating  to  the  United  States.  Although  a  voyage 
thither  was  then  a  much  more  formidable  thing  for  a  working 
man  to  accomplish  than  a  voyage  to  Australia  is  now,  he  serious- 
ly entertained  the  project,  and  had  all  but  made  up  his  mind  to 
go.  His  sister  Ann,  with  her  husband,  emigrated  about  that 
time,  but  George  could  not  raise  the  requisite  money,  and  they 
departed  without  him.  After  all,  it  went  sore  against  his  heart 
to  leave  his  home  and  his  kindred,  the  scenes  of  his  youth  and 
the  friends  of  his  boyhood,  and  he  struggled  long  with  the  idea, 
brooding  over  it  in  sorrow.  Speaking  afterward  to  a  friend  of 
his  thoughts  at  the  time,  he  said :  "You  know  the  road  from  my 
house  at  the  West  Moor  to  Killingworth.  I  remember  once 
when  I  went  along  that  road  I  wept  bitterly,  for  I  knew  not 
where  my  lot  in  life  would  be  cast."  But  his  poverty  prevented 
him  from  prosecuting  the  idea  of  emigration,  and  rooted  him  to 
the  place  where  he  afterward  worked  out  his  career  so  manfully 
.  and  victoriously. 

In  1808,  Stephenson,  with  two  other  brakesmen,  took  a  small 
contract  under  the  colliery  lessees,  brakeing  the  engines  at  the 


CHAP.  III.]  ECONOMIZES  COLLIERY  WORKING.  131 

West  Moor  Pit.  The  brakesmen  found  the  oil  and  tallow ;  they 
divided  the  work  among  them,  and  were  paid  so  much  per  score 
for  their  labor.  There  being  two  engines  working  night  and  day, 
two  of  the  three  men  were  always  on  duty,  the  average  earnings 
of  each  amounting  to  from  18s.  to  20s.  a  week.  It  was  the  inter- 
est of  the  brakesmen  to  economize  the  working  as  much  as  possi- 
ble, and  George  no  sooner  entered  upon  the  contract  than  he  pro- 
ceeded to  devise  ways  and  means  of  making  the  contract  "  pay." 
He  observed  that  the  ropes  with  which  the  coal  was  drawn  out 
of  the  pit  by  the  winding -engine  were  badly  arranged;  they 
"  glued"  and  wore  each  other  to  tatters  by  the  perpetual  friction. 
There  was  thus  great  wear  and  tear,  and  a  serious  increase  in  the 
expenses  of  the  pit.  George  found  that  the  ropes  which,  at  other 
pits  in  the  neighborhood,  lasted  about  three  months,  at  the  West 
Moor  Pit  became  worn  out  in  about  a  month.  He  accordingly 
set  himself  to  ascertain  the  cause  of  the  defect ;  and,  finding  that 
it  was  occasioned  by  excessive  friction,  he  proceeded,  with  the 
sanction  of  the  head  engine- wright  and  of  the  colliery  owners,  to 
shift  the  pulley-wheels  so  that  they  worked  immediately  over  the 
centre  of  the  pit.  By  this  expedient,  accompanied  by  an  entire 
rearrangement  of  the  gearing  of  the  machine,  he  shortly  succeed- 
ed in  greatly  lessening  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  ropes,  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  owners  as  well  as  of  the  workmen,  who  were  thus 
enabled  to  labor  more  continuously  and  profitably. 

About  the  same  time  he  attempted  an  improvement  in  the 
winding-engine  which  he  worked,  by  placing  a  valve  between 
the  air-pump  and  condenser.  This  expedient,  although  it  led  to 
no  practical  result,  showed  that  his  mind  was  actively  engaged  in 
studying  new  mechanical  adaptations.  It  continued  to  be  his 
regular  habit,  on  Saturdays,  to  take  his  engine  to  pieces,  for  the 
purpose  at  the  same  time  of  familiarizing  himself  with  its  action, 
and  of  placing  it  in  a  state  of  thorough  working  order ;  and  by 
mastering  the  details  of  the  engine,  he  was  enabled,  as  opportuni- 
ty occurred,  to  turn  to  practical  account  the  knowledge  thus  dili- 
gently and  patiently  acquired. 

Such  an  opportunity  was  not  long  in  presenting  itself.  In  the 
year  1810,  a  pit  was  sunk  by  the  "  Grand  Allies"  (the  lessees  of 
the  mines)  at  the  village  of  Killingworth,  now  known  as  the 
Killingworth  High  Pit.  An  atmospheric  or  Xewcomen  engine, 


132  THE  HIGH  PIT  ENGINE.  [PART  II. 

originally  made  by  Smeaton,  was  fixed  there  for  the  purpose  of 
pumping  out  the  water  from  the  shaft ;  but,  somehow  or  other, 
the  engine  failed  to  clear  the  pit.  As  one  of  the  workmen  has 
since  described  the  circumstance—"  She  couldn't  keep  her  jack- 
head  in  water:  all  the  engine-men  in  the  neighborhood  were 
tried,  as  well  as  Crowther  of  the  Ouseburn,  but  they  were  clean 
bet."  The  engine  had  been  fruitlessly  pumping  for  nearly  twelve 
months,  and  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  total  failure.  Stephenson 
had  gone  to  look  at  it  when  in  course  of  erection,  and  then  ob- 
served to  the  over-man  that  he  thought  it  was  defective ;  he  also 
gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  if  there  were  much  water  in  the  mine, 
the  engine  could  never  keep  it  under.  Of  course,  as  he  was  only 
a  brakesman,  his  opinion  was  considered  to  be  worth  very  little 
on  such  a  point.  He  continued,  however,  to  make  frequent  visits 
to  the  engine  to  see  "  how  she  was  getting  on."  From  the  bank- 
head  where  he  worked  his  brake  he  could  see  the  chimney  smok- 
ing at  the  High  Pit ;  and  as  the  workmen  were  passing  to  and 
from  their  work,  he  would  call  out  and  inquire  "  if  they  had  got- 
ten to  the  bottom  yet."  And  the  reply  was  always  to  the  same 
effect — the  pumping  made  no  progress,  and  the  workmen  were 
still "  drowned  out." 

One  Saturday  afternoon  he  went  over  to  the  High  Pit  to  ex- 
amine the  engine  more  carefully  than  he  had  yet  done.  He  had 
been  turning  the  subject  over  in  his  mind,  and,  after  a  long  exam- 
ination, he  seemed  to  have  satisfied  himself  as  to  the  cause  of  the 
failure.  Kit  Heppel,  one  of  the  sinkers,  asked  him, "  "Weel,  George, 
what  do  you  mak'  o'  her  ?  Do  you  think  you  could  do  any  thing 
to  improve  her?"  "  Man,"  said  George,  in  reply,  "  I  could  alter 
her  and  make  her  draw :  in  a  week's  time  from  this  I  could  send 
you  to  the  bottom." 

Heppel  at  once  reported  this  conversation  to  Ealph  Dodds,  the 
head  viewer,  who,  being  now  quite  in  despair,  and  hopeless  of 
succeeding  with  the  engine,  determined  to  give  George's  skill  a 
trial.  George  had  already  acquired  the  character  of  a  very  clev- 
er and  ingenious  workman,  and,  at  the  worst,  he  could  only  fail, 
as  the  rest  had  done.  In  the  evening  Dodds  went  in  search  of 
Stephenson,  and  met  him  on  the  road,  dressed  in  his  Sunday's 
suit,  on  his  way  to  "the  preaching"  in  the  Methodist  Chapel, 
which  he  at  that  time  attended.  "  Well,  George,"  said  Dodds, 


CHAP.  III.]  THE  PUMPING-ENGINE  CURED.  133 

"  they  tell  me  that  you  think  you  can  put  the  engine  at  the  High 
Pit  to  rights."  "  Yes,  sir,"  said  George, "  I  think  I  could."  "  If 
that's  the  case,  I'll  give  you  a  fair  trial,  and  you  must  set  to  work 
immediately.  We  are  clean  drowned  out,  and  can  not  get  a  step 
farther.  The  engineers  hereabouts  are  all  bet ;  and  if  you  really 
succeed  in  accomplishing  what  they  can  not  do,  you  may  depend 
upon  it  I  will  make  you  a  man  for  life." 

Stephenson  began  his  operations  early  next  morning.  The 
only  condition  that  he  made,  before  setting  to  work,  was  that  he 
should  select  his  own  workmen.  There  was,  as  he  knew,  a  good 
deal  of  jealousy  among  the  "  regular"  men  that  a  colliery  brakes- 
man should  pretend  to  know  more  about  their  engine  than  they 
themselves  did,  and  attempt  to  remedy  defects  which  the  most 
skilled  men  of  their  craft,  including  the  engineer  of  the  colliery, 
had  failed  to  do.  But  George  made  the  condition  a  sine  qua  non. 
"  The  workmen,"  said  he,  "  must  either  be  all  Whigs  or  all  To- 
ries." There  was  no  help  for  it,  so  Dodds  ordered  the  old  hands 
to  stand  aside.  The  men  grumbled,  but  gave  way ;  and  then 
George  and  his  party  went  in. 

The  engine  was  taken  entirely  to  pieces.  The  cistern  contain- 
ing the  injection  water  was  raised  ten  feet;  the  injection  cock, 
being  too  small,  was  enlarged  to  nearly  double  its  former  size, 
and  it  was  so  arranged  that  it  should  be  shut  off  quickly  at  the 
beginning  of  the  stroke.  These  and  other  alterations  were  nec- 
essarily performed  in  a  rough  way,  but,  as  the  result  proved,  on 
true  principles.  Stephenson  also,  finding  that  the  boiler  would 
bear  a  greater  pressure  than  five  pounds'  to  the  inch,  determined 
to  work  it  at  a  pressure  of  ten  pounds,  though  this  was  contrary 
to  the  directions  of  both  ISewcomen  and  Smeaton. 

The  necessary  alterations  were  made  in  about  three  days,  and 
many  persons  came  to  see  the  engine  start,  including  the  men 
who  had  put  her  up.  The  pit  being  nearly  full  of  water,  she  had 
little  to  do  on  starting,  and,  to  use  George's  words, "  came  bounce 
into  the  house."  Dodds  exclaimed,  "  Why,  she  was  better  as  she 
was ;  now,  she  will  knock  the  house  down."  After  a  short  time, 
however,  the  engine  got  fairly  to  work,  and  by  ten  o'clock  that 
night  the  water  was  lower  in  the  pit  than  it  had  ever  been  before. 
The  engine  was  kept  pumping  all  Thursday,  and  by  the  Friday 
afternoon  the  pit  was  cleared  of  water,  and  the  workmen  were 


134  SKILL  AS  A  PUMP-DOCTOR.  [PART  II. 

"  sent  to  the  bottom,"  as  Stephenson  had  promised.  Thus  the  al- 
terations effected  in  the  pumping  apparatus  proved  completely 
successful.* 

Mr.  Dodds  was  particularly  gratified  with  the  manner  in  which 
the  job  had  been  done,  and  he  made  Stephenson  a  present  of  ten 
pounds,  which,  though  very  inadequate  when  compared  with  the 
value  of  the  work  performed,  was  accepted  with  gratitude.  George 
was  proud  of  the  gift  as  the  first  marked  recognition  of  his  skill 
as  a  workman ;  and  he  used  afterward  to  say  that  it  was  the  big- 
gest sum  of  money  he  had  up  to  that  time  earned  in  one  lump. 
Ralph  Dodds,  however,  did  more  than  this ;  he  released  the  brakes 
man  from  the  handles  of  his  engine  at  West  Moor,  and  appointed 
him  engine-man  at  the  High  Pit,  at  good  wages,  during  the  time 
the  pit  was  sinking — the  job  lasting  for  about  a  year ;  and  he  also 
kept  him  in  mind  for  farther  advancement. 

Stephenson's  skill  as  an  engine  -  doctor  soon  became  noised 
abroad,  and  he  was  called  upon  to  prescribe  remedies  for  all  the 
old,  wheezy,  and  ineffective  pumping-machines  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. In  this  capacity  he  soon  left  the  "  regular"  men  far  be- 
hind, though  they,  in  their  turn,  were  very  much  disposed  to  treat 
the  Killingworth  brakesman  as  no  better  than  a  quack.  Never- 
theless, his  practice  was  really  founded  upon  a  close  study  of  the 
principles  of  mechanics,  and  on  an  intimate  practical  acquaint- 
ance with  the  details  of  the  pumping-engine. 

Another  of  his  smaller  achievements  in  the  same  line  is  still 
told  by  the  people  of  the  district.  At  the  corner  of  the  road  lead- 
ing to  Long  Ben  ton  there  was  a  quarry  from  which  a  peculiar 
and  scarce  kind  of  ochre  was  taken.  In  the  course  of  working 
it  out,  the  water  had  collected  in  considerable  quantities ;  and 
there  being  no  means  of  draining  it  off,  it  accumulated  to  such  an 
extent  that  the  farther  working  of  the  ochre  was  almost  entirely 
stopped.  Ordinary  pumps  were  tried,  and  failed ;  and  then  a 
windmill  was  tried,  and  failed  too.  On  this,  George  was  asked 
what  ought  to  be  done  to  clear  the  quarry  of  the  water.  He  said 
"  he  would  set  up  for  them  an  engine,  little  bigger  than  a  kail- 

*  As  different  versions  have  been  given  of  this  affair,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the 
above  statement  is  made  on  the  authority  of  the  late  Robert  Stephenson,  and  of 
George  Stephenson  himself,  as  communicated  by  the  latter  to  his  friend  Thomas  L. 
Gooch,  C.E.,  who  has  kindly  supplied  the  author  with  his  memoranda  on  the  subject. 


CHAP.  III.]  FEATS  OF  AGILITY.  135 

pot,  that  would  clear  them  out  in  a  week."  And  he  did  so.  A 
little  engine  was  speedily  erected,  by  means  of  which  the  quarry 
was  pumped  dry  in  the  course  of  a  few  days.  Thus  his  skill  as 
a  pump-doctor  soon  became  the  marvel  of  the  district. 

In  elastic  muscular  vigor  Stephenson  was  now  in  his  prime, 
and  he  still  continued  zealous  in  measuring  his  strength  and  agil- 
ity with  his  fellow-workmen.  The  competitive  element  in  his 
nature  was  always  strong,  and  his  success  in  these  feats  of  rivalry 
was  certainly  remarkable.  Few,  if  any,  could  lift  such  weights, 
throw  the  hammer  and  put  the  stone  so  far,  or  cover  so  great  a 
space  at  a  standing  or  running  leap.  One  day,  between  the  en- 
gine hour  and  the  rope-rolling  hour,  Kit  Heppel  challenged  him 
to  leap  from  one  high  wall  to  another,  with  a  deep  gap  between. 
To  Heppel's  surprise  and  dismay,  George  took  the  standing  leap, 
and  cleared  the  eleven  feet  at  a  bound.  Had  his  eye  been  less 
accurate,  or  his  limbs  less  agile  and  sure,  the  feat  must  have  cost 
him  his  life. 

But  so  full  of  redundant  muscular  vigor  was  he,  that  leaping, 
putting,  or  throwing  the  hammer,  were  not  enough  for  him.  He 
was  also  ambitious  of  riding  on  horseback ;  and,  as  he  had  not 
yet  been  promoted  to  an  office  enabling  him  to  keep  a  horse  of 
his  own,  he  sometimes  borrowed  one  of  the  gin-horses  for  a  ride. 
On  one  of  these  occasions  he  brought  the  animal  back  reeking, 
when  Tommy  Hitcheson,  the  bank  horse-keeper,  a  rough-spoken 
fellow,  exclaimed  to  him, "  Set  such  fellows  as  you  on  horseback, 
and  you'll  soon  ride  to  the  De'il."  But  Tommy  Mitcheson  lived 
to  tell  the  story,  and  to  confess  that,  after  all,  there  had  been  a 
better  issue  of  George's  horsemanship  than  what  he  had  predicted. 

Old  Cree,  the  engine-wright  at  Killingworth  High  Pit,  having 
been  killed  by  an  accident,  George  Stephenson  was,  in  1812,  ap- 
pointed engine-wright  of  the  colliery  at  the  salary  of  £100  a  year. 
He  was  also  allowed  the  use  of  a  galloway  to  ride  upon  in  his  vis- 
its of  inspection  to  the  collieries  leased  by  the  "  Grand  Allies"  in 
that  neighborhood. 

The  "  Grand  Allies"  were  a  company  of  gentlemen,  consisting 
of  Sir  Thomas  Liddell  (afterward  Lord  Kavensworth),  the  Earl  of 
Strathmore,  and,  and  Mr.  Stuart  Wortley  (afterward  Lord  Wharn- 
cliffe),  the  lessees  of  the  Killingworth  collieries.  Having  been  in- 
formed of  the  merits  of  Stephenson,  of  his  indefatigable  industry, 


136 


APPOINTED  COLLIER  Y  ENGINE-  WRIGHT.        [PART  II. 


and  the  skill  which  he  had  displayed  in  the  repairs  of  the  pump- 
ing-engines,  they  readily  acceded  to  Mr.  Dodds's  recommendation 
that  he  should  be  appointed  the  colliery  engine- wright ;  and,  as 
we  shall  afterward  find,  they  continued  to  honor  him  by  distin- 
guished marks  of  their  approval. 


-: 


---•:•-  ' 
. 


KILLINGWOETH   HIGH   PIT. 


FARM-HOC6F,,  BEN  TO: 


CHAPTEK  IV. 

THE   STEPHENSONS   AT   KILLINGWOBTH EDUCATION   AND   SELF- 
EDUCATION   OF   FATHER  AND   SON. 

GEORGE  STEPHENSON  had  now  been  diligently  employed  for 
several  years  in  the  work  of  self-improvement,  and  he  experi- 
enced the  usual  results  in  increasing  mental  strength,  capability, 
and  skill.  Perhaps  the  secret  of  every  man's  best  success  in  life 
is  to  be  found  in  the  alacrity  and  industry  with  which  he  takes 
advantage  of  the  opportunities  which  present  themselves  for  well- 
doing. Our  engine-man  was  an  eminent  illustration  of  the  im- 
portance of  cultivating  this  habit  of  life.  Every  spare  moment 
was  laid  under  contribution  by  him,  either  for  the  purpose  of 
adding  to  his  earnings  or  to  his  knowledge.  He  missed  no  op- 
portunity of  extending  his  observations,  especially  in  his  own  de- 
partment of  work,  aiming  at  improvement,  and  trying  to  turn  all 
that  he  did  know  to  useful  practical  account. 

He  continued  his  attempts  to  solve  the  mystery  of  Perpetual 
Motion,  and  contrived  several  model  machines  with  the  object  of 
embodying  his  ideas  in  a  practical  working  shape.  He  afterward 
used  to  lament  the  time  he  had  lost  in  these  futile  efforts,  and  said 
that  if  he-  had  enjoyed  the  opportunities  which  most  young  men 
now  have,  of  learning  from  books  what  previous  experimenters 
had  accomplished,  he  would  have  been  spared  much  labor  and 
mortification.  Not  being  acquainted  with  what  other  mechanics 


138  JOHN  WIGHAM.  [PART  II. 

had  done,  he  groped  his  way  in  pursuit  of  some  idea  originated 
by  his  own  independent  thinking  and  observation,  and,  when  he 
had  brought  it  into  some  definite  form,  lo !  he  found  that  his  sup- 
pose.d  invention  had  long  been  known  and  recorded  in  scientific 
books.  Often  he  thought  he  had  hit  upon  discoveries  which  he 
subsequently  found  were  but  old  and  exploded  fallacies.  Yet 
his  very  struggle  to  overcome  the  difficulties  which  lay  in  his 
way  was  of  itself  an  education  of  the  best  sort.  By  wrestling 
with  them,  he  strengthened  his  judgment  and  sharpened  his  skill, 
stimulating  and  cultivating  his  inventiveness  and  mechanical  in- 
genuity. Being  very  much  in  earnest,  he  was  compelled  to  con- 
sider the  subject  of  his  special  inquiry  ill  all  its  relations,  and  thus 
he  gradually  acquired  practical  ability  through  his  very  efforts 
after  the  impracticable. 

Many  of  his  evenings  were  spent  in  the  society  of  John  Wig- 
ham,  whose  father  occupied  the  Glebe  farm  at  Benton  close  at 
hand.  John  was  a  fair  penman  and  good  arithmetician,  and  Ste- 
phenson  frequented  his  society  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  improv- 
ing himself  in  writing  and  "  figuring."  Under  Andrew  Robert- 
son he  had  never  quite  mastered  the  Rule  of  Three,  and  it  was 
only  when  Wigham  took  him  in  hand  that  he  made  progress  in 
the  higher  branches  of  arithmetic.  He  generally  took  his  slate 
with  him  to  the  Wighams'  cottage,  when  he  had  his  sums  set,  that 
he  might  work  them  out  while  tending  his  engine  on  the  follow- 
ing day.  When  too  busy  with  other  work  to  be  able  to  call  upon 
Wigham  in  person,  he  sent  the  slate  by  a  fellow-workman  to  have 
the  former  sums  corrected  and  new  ones  set.  Sometimes  also,  at 
leisure  moments,  he  was  enabled  to  do  a  little  "  figuring"  with 
chalk  upon  the  sides  of  the  coal-wagons.  So  much  patient  per- 
severance could  not  but  eventually  succeed ;  and  by  dint  of  prac- 
tice and  study,  Stephenson  was  enabled  to  master  the  successive 
rules  of  arithmetic. 

John  Wigham  was  of  great  use  to  his  pupil  in  many  ways.  He 
was  a  good  talker,  fond  of  argument,  an  extensive  reader  as  coun- 
try reading  went  in  those  days,  and  a  very  suggestive  thinker. 
Though  his  store  of  information  might  be  comparatively  small 
when  measured  with  that  of  more  highly  cultivated  minds,  much 
of  it  was  entirely  new  to  Stephenson,  who  regarded  him  as  a  very 
clever  and  extraordinary  person.  Wigham  also  taught  him  to  draw 


CHAP.  IV.]  EDUCATION  AND  SELF-CULTURE.  139 

plans  and  sections,  though  in  this  branch  Stephenson  proved  so 
apt  that  he  soon  surpassed  his  master.  A  volume  of  "  Ferguson's 
Lectures  on  Mechanics"  which  fell  into  their  hands  was  a  great 
treasure  to  both  the  students.  One  who  remembers  their  even- 
ing occupations  says  he  "used  to  wonder  what  they  meant  by 
weighing  the  air  and  water  in  so  odd  a  way."  '  They  were  trying 
the  specific  gravities  of  objects;  and  the  devices  which  they  em- 
ployed, the  mechanical  shifts  to  which  they  were  put,  were  often 
of  the  rudest  kind.  In  these  evening  entertainments  the  mechan- 
ical contrivances  were  supplied  by  Stephenson,  while  Wigham 
found  the  scientific  rationale.  The  opportunity  thus  afforded  to 
the  former  of  cultivating  his  mind  by  contact  with  one  wiser 
than  himself  proved  of  great  value,  and  in  after  life  Stephenson 
gratefully  remembered  the  assistance  which,  when  a  humble 
workman,  he  had  received  from  John  Wigham,  the  farmer's  son. 

His  leisure  moments  thus  carefully  improved,  it  will  be  infer- 
red that  Stephenson  continued  a  sober  man.  Though  his  notions 
were  never  extreme  on  this  point,  he  was  systematically  temper- 
ate. It  appears  that  on  the  invitation  of  his  master,  Ralph  Dodds 
— and  an  invitation  from  a  master  to  a  workman  is  not  easy  to 
resist — he  had,  on  one  or  two  occasions,  been  induced  to  join  him 
in  a  forenoon  glass  of  ale  in  the  public  house  of  the  village.  But 
one  day,  about  noon,  when  Mr.  Dodds  had  got  him  as  far  as  the 
public-house  door,  on  his  invitation  to  "  come  in  and  take  a  glass 
o'  yel,"  Stephenson  made  a  dead  stop,  and  said,  firmly, "  No,  sir, 
you  must  excuse  me ;  I  have  made  a  resolution  to  drink  no  more 
at  this  time  of  day."  And  he  went  back.  He  desired  to  retain 
the  character  of  a  steady  workman ;  and  the  instances  of  men 
about  him  who  had  made  shipwreck  of  their  character  through 
intemperance  were  then,  as  now,  unhappily  too  frequent. 

But  another  consideration  besides  his  own  self-improvement 
had  already  begun  to  exercise  an  important  influence  upon  his 
life.  This  was  the  training  and  education  of  his  son  Robert,  now 
growing  up  an  active,  intelligent  boy,  as  full  of  fun  and  tricks  as 
his  father  had  been.  When  a  little  fellow,  scarce  big  enough  to 
reach  so  high  as  to  put  a  clock-head  on  when  placed  upon  the 
table,  his  father  would  make  him  mount  a  chair  for  the  purpose ; 
and  to  "  help  father"  was  the  proudest  work  which  the  boy  then, 
and  ever  after,  could  take  part  in.  When  the  little  engine  was 


140 


HIS  SON  ROBERT. 


[PART  II. 


set  up  at  the  Ochre  Quarry  to  pump  it  dry,  Robert  was  scarcely 
absent  for  an  hour.  He  watched  the  machine  very  eagerly  when 
it  was  set  to  work,  and  he  was  very  much  annoyed  at  the  fire 
burning  away  the  grates.  The  man  who  fired  the  engine  was  a 
sort  of  wag,  and  thinking  to  get  a  laugh  at  the  boy,  he  said, 
"  Those  bars  are  getting  varra  bad,  Robert ;  I  think  we  maun  cut 
up  some  of  that  hard  wood,  and  put  it  in  instead."  "  What  would 
be  the  use  of  that,  you  fool  ?"  said  the  boy,  quickly.  "  You  would 
no  sooner  have  put  them  in  than  they  would  be  burnt  out  again !" 
So  soon  as  Robert  was  of  a  proper  age,  his  father  sent  him 
over  to  the  road-side  school  at  Long  Benton,  kept  by  Rutter,  the 


BUTTEK'S  SCHOOL-HOUSE,  LONG  BENTON.    [By  R.  P.  Leitch.] 

parish  clerk.  But  the  education  which  he  gave  was  of  a  very 
limited  kind,  scarcely  extending  beyond  the  primer  and  pothooks. 
While  working  as  a  brakesman  on  the  pit-head  at  Killingworth, 
the  father  had  often  bethought  him  of  the  obstructions  he  had 
himself  encountered  in  life  through  his  want  of  schooling,  and 
he  formed  the  determination  that  no  labor,  nor  pains,  nor  self- 
denial  on  his  part  should  be  spared  to  furnish  his  son  with  the 
best  education  that  it  was  in  his  power  to  bestow. 

It  is  true,  his  earnings  were  comparatively  small  at  that  time. 


CHAP.  IV.]     STEPHENSON  ON  HIS  SON'S  EDUCATION.  141 

He  was  still  maintaining  his  infirm  parents,  and  the  cost  of  li ving 
continued  excessive.  But  he  fell  back,  as  before,  upon  his  old 
expedient  of  working  up  his  spare  time  in  the  evenings  at  home, 
or  during  the  night  shifts  when  it  was  his  turn  to  tend  the  en- 
gine, in  mending  and  making  shoes,  cleaning  clocks  and  watches, 
making  shoe-lasts  for  the  shoemakers  of  the  neighborhood,  and 
cutting  out  the  pitmen's  clothes  for  their  wives ;  and  we  have 
been  told  that  to  this  day  there  are  clothes  worn  at  Killingworth 
made  after  "  Geordy  Steevie's  cut."  To  give  his  own  words : 
"  In  the  earlier  period  of  my  career,"  said  he, "  when  Robert  was 
a  little  boy,  I  saw  how  deficient  I  was  in  education,  and  I  made 
up  my  mind  that  he  should  not  labor  under  the  same  defect,  but 
that  I  would  put  him  to  a  good  school,  and  give  him  a  liberal 
training.  I  was,  however,  a  poor  man ;  and  how  do  you  think 
I  managed  ?  I  betook  myself  to  mending  my  neighbors'  clocks 
and  watches  at  nights,  after  my  daily  labor  was  done,  and  thus  I 
procured  the  means  of  educating  my  son."* 

By  dint  of  such  extra  labor  in  his  by-hours,  with  this  object, 
Stephenson  contrived  to  save  a  sum  of  £100,  which  he  accumu- 
lated in  guineas,  each  of  which  he  afterward  sold  to  Jews,  who 
went  about  buying  up  gold  coins  (then  dearer  than  silver),  at 
twenty-six  shillings  apiece ;  and  he  lent  out  the  proceeds  at  in- 
terest. He  was  now,  therefore,  a  comparatively  thriving  man. 

When  he  was  appointed  engine- wright  of  the  colliery,  he  was, 
of  course,  still  easier  in  his  circumstances ;  and,  carrying  out  the 
resolution  which  he  had  formed  as  to  his  boy's  education,  Robert 
was  sent  to  Mr.  Brace's  school  in  Percy  Street,  Newcastle,  at  mid- 
summer, 1815,  when  he  was  about  twelve  years  old.  His  father 
bought  for  him  a  donkey,  on  which  he  rode  into  Newcastle  and 
back  daily ;  and  there  are  many  still  living  who  remember  the 
little  boy,  dressed  in  his  suit  of  homely  gray  stuff  cut  out  by  his 
father,  cantering  along  to  school  upon  the  "  cuddy,"  with  his  wal- 
let of  provisions  for  the  day  and  his  bag  of  books  slung  over  his 
shoulder. 

When  Robert  went  to  Mr.  Brace's  school  he  was  a  shy,  unpol- 
ished country  lad,  speaking  the  broad  dialect  of  the  pitmen ;  and 
the  other  boys  would  occasionally  tease  him,  for  the  purpose  of 

*  Speech  at  Newcastle,  on  the  1 8th  of  June,  1 844,  at  the  meeting  held  in  celebra- 
tion of  the  opening  of  the  Newcastle  and  Darlington  Railway. 


142 


BRUCE'S  SCHOOL,  NEWCASTLE. 


[PART  II. 


provoking  an  outburst  of  his  Killingworth  Doric.  As  the  shy- 
ness got  rubbed  off  by  familiarity,  his  love  of  fun  began  to  show 
itself,  and  he  was  found  able  enough  to  hold  his  own  among  the 
other  boys.  As  a  scholar  he  was  steady  and  diligent,  and  his 
master  was  accustomed  to -hold  him  up  to  the  laggards  of  the 


BRUCE'S  SCHOOL,  NEWCASTLE.    [By  R.  P.  Leitch.] 


school  as  an  example  of  good  conduct  and  industry.  But  his 
progress,  though  satisfactory,  was  by  no  means  extraordinary. 
He  used  in  after  life  to  pride  himself  on  his  achievements  in 
mensuration,  though  another  boy,  John  Taylor,  beat  him  at  arith- 
metic. He  also  made  considerable  progress  in  mathematics ;  and 
in  a  letter  written  to  the  son  of  his  teacher,  many  years  after,  he 
said, "  It  was  to  Mr.  Brace's  tuition  and  methods  of  modeling  the 
mind  that  I  attribute  much  of  my  success  as  an  engineer,  for  it 
was  from  him  that  I  derived  my  taste  for  mathematical  pursuits, 
and  the  facility  I  possess  of  applying  this  kind  of  knowledge  to 
practical  purposes,  and  modifying  it  according  to  circumstances." 
During  the  time  Kobert  attended  school  at  Newcastle,  his  fa- 
ther made  the  boy's  education  instrumental  to  his  own.  Robert 
was  accustomed  to  spend  some  of  his  spare  time  at  the  rooms  of 
the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Institute,  and  when  he  went  home 


CHAP.  IV.]          EDUCATION  AND  SELF-EDUCATION.  143 

in  the  evening  he  would  recount  to  his  father  the  results  of  his 
reading.  Sometimes  he  was  allowed  to  take  with  him  to  Killing- 
worth  a  volume  of  the  "  Kepertory  of  Arts  and  Sciences,"  which 
father  and  son  studied  together.  But  many  of  the  most  valuable 
works  belonging  to  the  Newcastle  Library  were  not  permitted  to 
be  removed  from  the  rooms ;  these  Robert  was  instructed  to  read 
and  study,  and  bring  away  with  him  descriptions  and  sketches 
for  his  father's  information.  His  father  also  practiced  him  in 
the  reading  of  plans  and  drawings  without  at  all  referring  to  the 
written  descriptions.  He  used  to  observe  to  his  son, "  A  good 
drawing  or  plan  should  always  explain  itself ;"  and,  placing  a 
drawing  of  an  engine  or  machine  before  the  youth,  he  would  say, 
"  There,  now,  describe  that  to  me — the  arrangement  and  the  ac- 
tion." Thus  he  taught  him  to  read  a  drawing  as  easily  as  he 
would  read  a  page  of  a  book.  Both  father  and  son  profited  by 
this  excellent  practice,  which  shortly  enabled  them  to  apprehend 
with  the  greatest  facility  the  details  of  even  the  most  difficult 
and  complicated  mechanical  drawing. 

While  Robert  went  on  with  his  lessons  in  the  evenings,  his  fa- 
ther was  usually  occupied  with  his  watch  and  clock  cleaning,  or 
contriving  models  of  pumping-engines,  or  endeavoring  to  embody 
in  a  tangible  shape  the  mechanical  inventions  which  he  found  de- 
scribed in  the  odd  volumes  on  Mechanics  which  fell  in  his  way. 
This  daily  and  unceasing  example  of  industry  and  application, 
working  on  before  the  boy's  eyes  in  the  person  of  a  loving  and 
beloved  father,  imprinted  itself  deeply  upon  his  mind  in  charac- 
ters never  to  be  effaced.  A  spirit  of  self -improvement  was  thus 
early  and  carefully  planted  and  fostered  in  him,  which  continued 
to  influence  his  character  through  life ;  and  toward  the  close  of 
his  career  he  was  proud  to  confess  that  if  his  professional  success 
had  been  great,  it  was  mainly  to  the  example  and  .training  of  his 
father  that  he  owed  it. 

Robert  was  not,  however,  exclusively  devoted  to  study,  but,  like 
most  boys  full  of  animal  spirits,  he  was  very  fond  of  fun  and 
play,  and  sometimes  of  mischief.  Dr.  Brace  relates  that  an  old 
Killingworth  laborer,  when  asked  by  Robert,  on  one  of  his  last 
visits  to  Newcastle,  if  he  remembered  him,  replied  with  emotion, 
"  Ay,  indeed !  Haven't  I  paid  your  head  many  a  time  when  you 
came  with  your  father's  bait,  for  you  were  always  a  sad  hempy  ?" 


144  ROBERT'S  BOYISH  TRICKS.  [PART  II. 

The  author  had  the  pleasure,  in  the  year  1854,  of  accompany- 
ing  Eobert  Stephenson  on  a  visit  to  his  old  home  and  haunts  at 
Killingworth.  He  had  so  often  traveled  the  road  upon  his  don- 
key to  and  from  school  that  every  foot  of  it  was  familiar  to  him, 
and  each  turn  in  it  served  to  recall  to  mind  some  incident  of  his 
boyish  days.*  His  eyes  glistened  when  he  came  in  sight  of  Kil- 
lingworth pit  head.  Pointing  to  a  humble  red-tiled  house  by  the 
roadside  at  Benton, he  said, "You  see  that  house — that  was  Eut- 
ter's,  where  I  learned  my  A  B  C,  and  made  a  beginning  of  my 
school  learning ;  and  there,"  pointing  to  a  colliery  chimney  on 
the  left, "  there  is  Long  Benton,  where  my  father  put  up  his  first 
pumping-engine  ;  and  a  great  success  it  was.  And  this  humble 
clay-floored  cottage  you  see  here  is  where  my  grandfather  lived 
till  the  close  of  his  life.  Many  a  time  have  I  ridden  straight 
into  the  house,  mounted  on  my  cuddy,  and  called  upon  grandfa- 
ther to  admire  his  points.  I  remember  the  old  man  feeling  the 
animal  all  over — he  was  then  quite  blind — after  which  he  would 
dilate  upon  the  shape  of  his  ears,  fetlocks,  and  quarters,  and  usu- 
ally end  by  pronouncing  him  to  be  a  '  real  blood.'  I  was  a  great 
favorite  with  the  old  man,  who  continued  very  fond  of  animals, 
and  cheerful  to  the  last ;  and  I  believe  nothing  gave  him  greater 
pleasure  than  a  visit  from  me  and  my  cuddy." 

On  the  way  from  Benton  to  High  Killingworth,  Mr.  Stephen- 
son  pointed  to  a  corner  of  the  road  where  he  had  once  played 
a  boyish  trick  upon  a  Killingworth  collier.  "  Straker,"  said  he, 
"  was  a  great  bully,  a  coarse,  swearing  fellow,  and  a  perfect  ty- 
rant among  the  women  and  children.  He  would  go  tearing  into 
old  Nanny  the  huxter's  shop  in  the  village,  and  demand  in  a  sav- 
age voice, '  What's  ye'r  best  ham  the  pund  ?'  '  What's  floor  the 
hunder  ?  ( What  d'ye  ax  for  prime  bacon  ?' — his  categories  usu- 
ally ending  with  the  miserable  order,  accompanied  with  a  tre- 
mendous oath,  of '  Gie's  a  penny  rrow  (roll)  an'  a  baubee  herrin' !' 
The  poor  woman  was  usually  set '  all  of  a  shake'  by  a  visit  from 
this  fellow.  He  was  also  a  great  boaster,  and  used  to  crow  over 
the  robbers  whom  he  had  put  to  flight ;  mere  men  in  buckram, 

*  At  one  part  of  the  road  he  was  once  pulled  off  his  donkey  by  some  mischievous 
boys,  and  released  by  a  young  man  named  James  Burnet.  Many  years  after,  Burnet 
was  taken  on  as  a  workman  at  the  Newcastle  factory,  probably  owing  his  selection  in 
some  measure  to  the  above  circumstance. 


CHAP.  IV.]  ROBERT'S  SCIENTIFIC  TRICK.  145 

as  every  body  knew.  We  boys,"  he  continued, "  believed  him  to 
be  a  great  coward,  and  determined  to  play  him  a  trick.  Two 
other  boys  joined  me  in  waylaying  Straker  one  night  at  that  cor- 
ner," pointing  to  it.  "  We  sprang  out  and  called  upon  him,  in 
as  gruff  voices  as  we  could  assume,  to  '  stand  and  deli ver !'  He 
dropped  down  upon  his  knees  in  the  dirt,  declaring  he  was  a  poor 
man,  with  a  sma'  family,  asking  for '  mercy,'  and  imploring  us,  as 
'  gentlemen,,  for  God's  sake,  t'  let  him  a-be !'  We  couldn't  stand 
this  any  longer,  and  set  up  a  shout  of  laughter.  Recognizing 
our  boys'  voices,  he  sprang  to  his  feet  again  and  rattled  out  a 
volley  of  oaths,  on  which  we  cut  through  the  hedge,  and  heard 
him  shortly  after  swearing  his  way  along  the  road  to  the  yel- 
house." 

On  another  occasion  Robert  played  a  series  of  tricks  of  a  some- 
what different  character.  Like  his  father,  he  was  very  fond  of 
reducing  his  scientific  reading  to  practice ;  and  after  studying 
Franklin's  description  of  the  lightning  experiment,  he  proceeded 
to  expend  his  store  of  Saturday  pennies  in  purchasing  about  half 
a  mile  of  copper  wire  at  a  brazier's  shop  in  Newcastle.  Having 
prepared  his  kite,  he  set  it  up  in  the  field  opposite  his  father's 
door,  and  bringing  the  wire,  insulated  by  means  of  a  few  feet  of 
silk  cord,  over  the  backs  of  some  of  Farmer  Wigham's  cows,  he 
soon  had  them  skipping  about  the  field  in  all  directions  with  their 
tails  up.  One  day  lie  had  his  kite  flying  at  the  cottage-door  as 
his  father's  galloway  was  hanging  by  the  bridle  to  the  paling, 
waiting  for  the  master  to  mount.  Bringing  the  end  of  the  wire 
just  over  the  pony's  crupper,  so  smart  an  electric  shock  was  given 
it  that  the  brute  was  almost  knocked  down.  At  this  juncture 
his  father  issued  from  the  house,  riding-whip  in  hand,  and  was 
witness  to  the  scientific  trick  just  played  off  upon  his  galloway. 
"  Ah !  you  mischievous  scoondrel !"  cried  he  to  the  boy,  who  ran 
off,  himself  inwardly  chuckling  with  pride,  nevertheless,  at  Rob- 
ert's successful  experiment.* 

At  this  time,  and  for  many  years  after,  Stephenson  dwelt  in  a 

*  Robert  Stephenson  was,  perhaps,  prouder  of  this  little  boyish  experiment  than 
he  was  of  many  of  his  subsequent  achievements.  Not  having  been  quite  accurately 
stated  in  the  first  edition  of  this  book,  Mr.  Stephenson  noted  the  correction  for  the 
second,  and  wrote  to  the  author  (Sept.  18th,  1857)  as  follows:  "In  the  kite  experi- 
ment, will  you  say  that  the  copper  wire  was  insulated  by  a  few  feet  of  silk  cord ; 
\\ithout  this,  the  experiment  can  not  be  made." 

K 


146 


THE  COTTAGE,  WEST  MOOR. 


[PART  II. 


cottage  standing  by  the  side  of  the,  road  leading  from  the  West 
MoorPit  to  Killingworth.  The  railway  from  West  Moor  crosses 
this  road  close  by  the  easternmost  end  of  the  cottage.  The  dwell- 
ing originally  consisted  of  but  one  apartment  on  the  ground  floor, 
with  a  garret  overhead,  to  which  access  was  obtained  by  means 


BTEPHENUON'B  COTTAGE,  WEST  MOOR.    [By  R.  P.  Leitch.] 


of  a  step-ladder.  With  his  own  hands  Stephenson  built  an  oven, 
and  in  the  course  of  time  he  added  rooms  to  the  cottage,  until 
it  became  expanded  into  a  comfortable  four-roomed  dwelling,  in 
which  he  remained  as  long  as  he  lived  at  Killingworth. 

He  continued  as  fond  of  birds  and  animals  as  ever,  and  seemed 
to  have  the  power  of  attaching  them  to  him  in  a  remarkable  de- 
gree. He  had  a  blackbird  at  Killingworth  so  fond  of  him  that 
it  would  fly  about  the  cottage,  and  on  holding  out  his  finger  the 
bird  would  come  and  perch  upon  it  directly.  A  cage  was  built 
for  "  blackie"  in  the  partition  between  the  passage  and  the  room, 
a  square  of  glass  forming  its  outer  wall ;  and  Robert  used  after- 
ward to  take  pleasure  in  describing  the  oddity  of  the  bird,  imi- 
tating the  manner  in  which  it  would  cock  its  head  on  his  father's 
entering  the  house,  and  follow  him  with  its  eye  into  the  inner 
apartment. 


CHAP.  IV.]  ECCENTRIC  CONTRIVANCES.  147 

Neighbors  were  accustomed  to  call  at  the  cottage  and  have 
their  clocks  and  watches  set  to  rights  when  they  went  wrong. 
One  day,  after  looking  at  the  works  of  a  watch  left  by  a  pitman's 
wife,  George  handed  it  to  his  son :  "  Put  her  in  the  oven,  Eobert," 
said  he, "  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  or  so."  It  seemed  an  odd  way 
of  repairing  a  watch ;  nevertheless,  the  watch  was  put  into  the 
oven,  and  at  the  end  of  the  appointed  time  it  was  taken  out, 
going  all  right.  The  wheels  had  merely  got  clogged  by  the  oil 
congealed  by  the  cold,  which  at  once  explains  the  rationale  of  the 
remedy  adopted. 

There  was  a  little  garden  attached  to  the  cottage,  in  which, 
while  a  workman,  Stephenson  took  a  pride  in  growing  gigantic 
leeks  and  astonishing  cabbages.  There  was  great  competition  in 
the  growing  of  vegetables  among  the  villagers,  all  of  whom  he 
excelled  excepting  one,  whose  cabbages  sometimes  outshone  his. 
To  protect  his  garden-crops  from  the  ravages  of  the  birds,  he  in- 
vented a  strange  sort  of  "  fley-craw,"  which  moved  its  arms  with 
the  wind ;  and  he  fastened  his  garden-door  by  means  of  a  piece 
of  ingenious  mechanism,  so  that  no  one  but  himself  could  enter 
it.  His  cottage  was  quite  a  curiosity-shop  of  models  of  engines, 
self-acting  planes,  and  perpetual-motion  machines.  The  last 
named  contrivances,  however,  were  only  unsuccessful  attempts  to 
solve  a  problem  which  had  already  baffled  hundreds  of  preceding 
inventors. 

His  odd  and  eccentric  contrivances  often  excited  great  wonder 
among  the  Killingworth  villagers.  He  won  the  women's  admi- 
ration by  connecting  their  cradles  with  the  smoke-jack,  and  mak- 
ing them  self-acting.  Then  he  astonished  the  pitmen  by  attach- 
ing an  alarm  to  the  clock  of  the  watchman  whose  duty  it  was  to 
call  them  betimes  in  the  morning.  He  also  contrived  a  wonder- 
ful lamp  which  burned  under  water,  with  which  he  was  after- 
ward wont  to  amuse  the  Brandling  family  at  Gosforth — going 
into  the  fish-pond  at  night,  lamp  in  hand,  attracting  and  catching 
the  fish,  which  rushed  wildly  toward  the  flame. 

Dr.  Bruce  tells  of  a  competition  which  Stephenson  had  with 
the  joiner  at  Killingworth  as  to  which  of  them  could  make  the 
best  shoe-last ;  and  when  the  former  had  done  his  work,  either 
for  the  humor  of  the  thing  or  to  secure  fair  play  from  the  ap- 
pointed judge,  he  took  it  to  the  Morrisons  in  Newcastle,  and  got 


148  SUN-DIAL  A  T  WEST  MOOR.  [PART  II. 

them  to  put  their  stamp  upon  it ;  so  that  it  is  possible  the  Killing- 
worth  brakesman,  afterward  the  inventor  of  a  safety-lamp  and 
originator  of  the  locomotive  railway  system,  and  John  Morrison, 
the  last-maker,  afterward  the  translator  of  the  Scriptures  into  the 
Chinese  language,  may  have  confronted  each  other  in  solemn 
contemplation  of  the  successful  last,  which  won  the  verdict  cov- 
eted by  its  maker. 

Sometimes  George  would  endeavor  to  impart  to  his  fellow- 
workmen  the  results  of  his  scientific  reading.  Every  thing  that 
he  learned  from  books  was  so  new  and  so  wonderful  to  him,  that 
he  regarded  the  facts  he  drew  from  them  in  the  light  of  discov- 
eries, as  if  they  had  been  made  but  yesterday.  Once  he  tried  to 
explain  to  some  of  the  pitmen  how  the  .earth  was  round,  and  kept 
turning  round.  But  his  auditors  flatly  declared  the  thing  to  be 
impossible,  as  it  was  clear  that "  at  the  bottom  side  they  must  fall 
off!"  "Ah!"  said  George,  "you  don't  quite  understand  it  yet." 
His  son  Robert  also  early  endeavored  to  communicate  to  others 
the  information  which  he  had  gathered  at  school ;  and  Dr.  Bruce 
relates  that,  when  visiting  Killingworth  on  one  occasion,  he  found 
him  engaged  in  teaching  algebra  to  such  of  the  pitmen's  boys  as 
would  become  his  pupils. 

While  Robert  was  still  at  school,  his  father  proposed  to  him 
during  the  holidays  that  he  should  construct  a  sun-dial,  to  be 
placed  over  their  cottage-door  at  West  Moor.  "  I  expostulated 
with  him  at  first,"  said  Robert, "  that  I  had  not  learned  sufficient 
astronomy  and  mathematics  to  enable  me  to  make  the  necessary 
calculations.  But  he  would  have  no  denial.  '  The  thing  is  to  be 
done,'  said  he, '  so  just  set  about  it  at  once.'  Well,  we  got  a '  Fer- 
guson's Astronomy,'  and  studied  the  subject  together.  Many  a 
sore  head  I  had  while  making  the  necessary  calculations  to  adapt 
the  dial  to  the  latitude  of  Killingworth.  But  at  length  it  was 
fairly  drawn  out  on  paper,  and  then  my  father  got  a  stone,  and 
we  hewed,  and  carved,  and  polished  it,  until  we  made  a  very  re- 
spectable dial  of  it ;  and  there  it  is,  you  see,"  pointing  to  it  over 
the  cottage  door, "  still  quietly  numbering  the  hours  when  the  sun 
shines.  I  assure  you,  not  a  little  was  thought  of  that  piece  of 
work  by  the  pitmen  when  it  was  put  up,  and  began  to  tell  its 
tale  of  time."  The  date  carved  upon  the  dial  is  "August  llth, 
MDCCCXVI."  Both  father  and  son  were  in  after  life  very  proud  of 


CHAP.  IV.]     REACHES  THE  HEIGHT  OF  HIS  AMBITION. 


149 


their  joint  production.  Many 
years  after,  George  took  a  par- 
ty of  savans,  when  attending 
the  meeting  of  the  British  As- 
sociation at  Newcastle,  over  to 
Killingworth  to  see  the  pits, 
and  he  did  not  fail  to  direct 
their  attention  to  the  sun-dial ; 
and  Robert,  on  the  last  visit 
which  he  made  to  the  place,  a 
short  time  before  his  death, 
took  a  friend  into  the  cottage, 
and  pointed  out  to  him  the 
very  desk,  still  there,  at  which 
he  had  sat  when  making  his  calculations  of  the  latitude  of  Kil- 
lingworth. 

From  the  time  of  his  appointment  as  engineer  at  the  Killing- 
worth  Pit,  George  Stephenson  was  in  a.  measure  relieved  from 
the  daily  routine  of  manual  labor,  having,  as  we  have  seen,  ad- 
vanced himself  to  the  grade  of  a  higher-class  workman.  «fle  had 
not  ceased  to  be  a  worker,  though  he  employed  his  industry  in  a 
different  way.  It  might,  indeed,  be  inferred  that  he  had  now  the 
command  of  greater  leisure ;  but  his  spare  hours  were  as  much 
as  ever  given  to  work,  either  necessary  or  self-imposed.  So  far 
as  regarded  his  social  position,  he  had  already  reached  the  sum- 
mit of  his  ambition ;  and  when  he  had  got  his  hundred  a  year, 
and  his  dun  galloway  to  ride  on,  he  said  he  never  wanted  to  be 
any  higher.  When  Robert  Wetherly  offered  to  give  him  an  old 
gig,  his  traveling  having  so  much  increased  of  late,  he  accepted 
it  with  great  reluctance,  observing  that  he  should  be  ashamed  to 
get  into  it, "  people  would  think  him  so  proud." 

When  the  High  Pit  had  been  sunk  and  the  coal  was  ready  for 
working,  Stephenson  erected  his  first  winding-engine  to  draw  the 
coals  out  of  the  pit,  and  also  a  pumping-engine  for  Long  Benton 
colliery,  both  of  which  proved  quite  successful.  Among  other 
works  of  this  time,  he  projected  and  laid  down  a  self-acting  in- 
cline along  the  declivity  which  fell  toward  the  coal-loading  place 
near  Willington,  where  he  had  formerly  officiated  as  brakesman ; 
and  he  so  arranged  it  that  the  full  wagons,  descending,  drew  the 


}50  STEPHENSON'S  VARIOUS  DUTIES.  [PART  II. 

empty  wagons  up  the  railroad.     This  was  one  of  the  first  self- 
acting  inclines  laid  down  in  the  district. 

The  following  is  Stephenson's  own  account  of  his  various  du- 
ties and  labors  at  this  period  of  his  life,  as  given  before  a  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1835  :* 

"After  making  some  improvements  in  the  steam-engines  above 
Around,  I  was  requested  by  the  manager  of  the  colliery  to  go  under- 
ground along  with  him,  to  see  if  any  improvements  could  be  made 
in  the  mines  by  employing  machinery  as  a  substitute  for  manual 
labor  and  horse-power  in  bringing  the  coals  out  of  the  deeper  work- 
ings of  the  mine.  On  my  first  going  down  the  Killingworth  pit, 
there  was  a  steam-engine  underground  for  the  purpose  of  drawing 
water  from  a  pit  that  was  sunk  at  some  distance  from  the  first  shaft. 
The  Killingworth  coal-field  is  considerably  dislocated.  After  the 
colliery  was  opened,  at  a  very  short  distance  from  the  shaft,  one  of 
those  dislocations  was  met  with.  The  coal  was  thrown  down  about 
forty  yards.  Considerable  time  was  spent  in  sinking  another  pit  to 
this  depth.  And  on  my  going  down  to  examine  the  work,  I  pro- 
posed making  the  engine  (which  had  been  erected  some  tune  pre- 
viously) to  draw  the  coals  up  an  inclined  plane  which  descended 
immediately  from  the  place  where  it  was  fixed.  A  considerable 
change  was  accordingly  made  in  the  mode  of  working  the  colliery, 
not  only  in  applying  the  machinery,  but  in  employing  putters  in- 
stead of  horses  in  bringing  the  coals  from  the  hewers;  and  by  those 
changes  the  number  of  horses  in  the  pit  was  reduced  from  about 
100  to  15  or  16.  During  the  time  I  was  engaged  in  making  these 
important  alterations,  I  went  round  the  workings  in  the  pit  with 
the  viewer  almost  every  time  that  he  went  into  the  mine,  not  only 
at  Killingworth,  but  at  Mountmoor,  Derwentcrook,  Southmoor,  all 
of  which  collieries  belonged  to  Lord  Ravensworth  and  his  partners ; 
and  the  whole  of  the  machinery  in  all  these  collieries  was  put  under 
my  charge." 

It  will  thus  be  observed  that  Stephenson  had  now  much  better 
opportunities  for  improving  himself  in  mechanics  than  he  had 
heretofore  possessed.  His  practical  knowledge  of  the  steam-en- 
gine could  not  fail  to  prove  of  the  greatest  value  to  him.  His 
shrewd  insight,  together  with  his  intimate  acquaintance  with  its 
mechanism,  enabled  him  to  apprehend,  as  if  by  intuition,  its  most 
abstruse  and  difficult  combinations.  The  study  which  he  had 

*  Evidence  given  before  the  Select  Committee  on  Accidents  in  Mines,  1835. 


CHAP.  IV.] 


THE  LOCOMOTIVE  ENGINE. 


151 


given  to  it  when  a  workman,  and  the  patient  manner  in  which 
he  had  groped  his  way  through  all  the  details  of  the  machine, 
gave  him  the  power  of  a  master  in  dealing  with  it  as  applied  to 
colliery  purposes. 

Sir  Thomas  Liddell  was  frequently  about  the  works,  and  took 
pleasure  in  giving  every  encouragement  to  the  engine-wright  in 
his  efforts  after  improvement.  The  subject  of  the  locomotive  en- 
gine was  already  occupying  Stephenson's  careful  attention,  al- 
though it  was  still  regarded  in  the  light  of  a  curious  and  costly 
toy,  of  comparatively  little  real  use.  But  he  had  at  an  early  pe- 
riod recognized  its  practical  value,  and  formed  an  adequate  con- 
ception of  the  might  which  as  yet  slumbered  within  it,  and  he 
now  proceeded  to  bend  the  whole  faculties  of  his  mind  to  the  de- 
velopment of  its  powers. 


COTTAGES   AT  LONG   BESTOX.      [By  R.  P.  LeitcU.] 


152  THE  LOCOMOTIVE  ENGINE.  [PART  II. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

THE  LOCOMOTIVE   ENGINE — GEOKGE   STEPHENSON   BEGINS   ITS 
IMPROVEMENT. 

THE  rapid  increase  in  the  coal-trade  of  the  Tyne  about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century  had  the  effect  of  stimulating  the 
ingenuity  of  mechanics,  and  encouraging  them  to  devise  im- 
proved methods  of  transporting  the  coal  from  the  pits  to  the 
shipping-places.  From  our  introductory  chapter,  it  will  have 
been  observed  that  the  improvements  which  had  thus  far  been 
effected  were  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  road.  The  railway 
wagons  still  continued  to  be  drawn  by  -horses.  By  improving 
and  flattening  the  tram- way,  considerable  economy  in  horse-pow- 
er had  been  secured ;  but,  unless  some  more  effective  method  of 
mechanical  traction  could  be  devised,  it  was  clear  that  railway 
improvement  had  almost  reached  its  limits. 

Notwithstanding  Trevithick's  comparatively  successful  experi- 
ment with  the  first  railway  locomotive  on  the  Merthyr  Tydvil 
tram-road  in  1804,  described  in  a  former  chapter,  he  seems  to 
have  taken  no  farther  steps  to  bring  his  invention  into  notice. 
He  was  probably  discouraged  by  the  breakage  of  the  cast-iron 
plates,  of  which  the  road  was  formed,  which  were  crushed  under 
the  load  of  his  engine,  and  could  not  induce  the  owners  of  the 
line  to  relay  it  with  better  materials  so  as  to  give  his  locomotive 
a  fair  trial. 

An  imaginary  difficulty,  also,  seems  to  have  tended,  among 
other  obstacles,  to  prevent  the  adoption  of  the  locomotive,  viz., 
the  idea  that,  if  a  heavy  weight  were  placed  behind  the  engine, 
the  "grip"  or  "bite"  of  its  smooth  wheels  upon  the  equally 
smooth  iron  rail  must  necessarily  be  so  slight  that  they  would 
whirl  round  upon  it,  and,  consequently,  that  the  machine  would 
not  make  any  progress.*  Hence  Trevithick,  in  his  patent,  pro- 

*  The  same  fallacy  seems  long  to  have  held  its  ground  in  France ;  for  M.  Granier 
tells  us  that  some  time  after  the  first  of  George  Stephenson's  locomotives  had  been 


CEAP.  V.]  THE  WYLAM  WA  GON-  WA  Y.  153 

vided  that  the  periphery  of  the  driving-wheels  should  be  made 
rough  by  the  projection  of  bolts  or  cross-grooves,  so  that  the  ad- 
hesion of  the  wheels  to  the  road  might  thereby  be  better  secured. 

Trevithick  himself  does  not  seem  to  have  erected  another  en- 
gine, but  we  gather  from  the  evidence  given  by  Mr.  Kastrick  in 
the  committee  on  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Bill  in  1825, 
that  ten  or  twelve  years  before  that  time  he  had  made  an  engine 
for  Trevithick  after  his  patent,  and  that  the  engine  was  exhibited 
in  London.  "  A  circular  railroad  was  laid  down,"  said  Mr.  Kas- 
trick, and  it  was  stated  that  this  engine  was  to  run  against  a 
horse,  and  that  which  went  a  sufficient  number  of  miles  was  to 
win."  It  is  not  known  what  afterward  became  of  this  engine. 

There  were,  however,  at  a  much  earlier  period,  several  wealthy 
and  enterprising  men,  both  in  Yorkshire  and  Northumberland, 
who  were  willing  to  give  the  locomotive  a  fair  trial ;  and  had 
Trevithick  but  possessed  the  requisite  tenacity  of  purpose — had 
he  not  been  too  soon  discouraged  by  partially  successful  experi- 
ments— he  might  have  risen  to  both  fame  and  fortune,  not  only 
as  the  inventor  of  the  locomotive,  but  as  the  practical  introducer 
of  railway  locomotion. 

One  of  Trevithick's  early  friends  and  admirers  was  Mr.  Black- 
ett,  of  "Wylam.  The  Wylam  wagon- way  is  one  of  the  oldest  in 
the  north  of  England.  Down  to  the  year  1807  it  was  formed  of 
wooden  spars  or  rails,  laid  down  between  the  colliery  at  Wylam 
— where  old  Robert  Stephenson  worked — and  the  village  of  Lem- 
ington,  some  four  miles  down  the  Tyne,  where  the  coals  were 
loaded  into  keels  or  barges,  and  floated  down  past  Newcastle,  tt> 
be  shipped  for  London.  Each  chaldron-wagon  had  a  man  in 
charge  of  it,  and  was  originally  drawn  by  one  horse.  The  rate 
at  which  the  wagons  were  hauled  was  so  slow  that  only  two  jour- 
neys were  performed  by  each  man  and  horse  in  one  day,  and 
three  on  the  day  following.  This  primitive  wagon-way  passed, 
as  before  stated,  close  in  front  of  the  cottage  in  which  George 
Stephenson  was  born,  and  one  of  the  earliest  sights  which  met 
his  infant  eyes  was  this  wooden  tram-road  worked  by  horses. 

placed  on  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line,  a  model  of  one  was  exhibited  before  the 
Academy.  After  it  had  been  examined,  a  member  of  that  learned  body  said,  smil- 
ing, "  Yes,  this  is  all  very  ingenious,  no  doubt,  but  unfortunately  the  machine  will 
never  move.  The  wheels  will  turn  round  and  round  in  the  same  place." 


154:  MB.  BLACKETT.—JOHN  STEELE.  [PART  IL 

Mr.  Blackett  was  the  first  colliery  owner  in  the  North  who 
took  an  active  interest  in  the  locomotive.  He  had  witnessed  the 
first  performances  of  Trevithick's  steam-carriage  in  London,  and 
was  so  taken  with  the  idea  of  its  application  to  railway  locomo- 
tion that  he  resolved  to  have  an  engine  erected  after  the  new 
patent  for  use  upon  his  tram-way  at  Wylam.  He  accordingly 
obtained  from  Trevithick,  in  October,  1804,  a  plan  of  his  engine, 
provided  with  "  friction- wheels,"  and  employed  Mr.  John  Whin- 
field,  of  Pipewellgate,  Gateshead,  to  construct  it  at  his  f oundery 
there.  The  engine  was  made  under  the  superintendence  of  one 
John  Steele,*  an  ingenious  mechanic,  who  had  been  in  Wales, 
and  worked  under  Trevithick  in  fitting  the  engine  at  Pen-y- 
darran.  When  the  Gateshead  locomotive  was  finished,  a  tempo- 
rary way  was  laid  down  in  the  works,  on  which  it  was  run  back- 
ward and  forward  many  times.  For  some  reason  or  other,  how- 
ever— it  is  said  because  the  engine  was  too  light  for  drawing  the 
coal-trains — it  never  left  the  works,  but  was  dismounted  from 
the  wheels,  and  set  to  blow  the  cupola  of  the  f  oundery,  in  which 
service  it  long  continued  to  be  employed. 

Several  years  elapsed  before  Mr.  Blackett  took  any  farther 
steps  to  carry  out  his  idea.  The  final  abandonment  of  Trevi- 
thick's locomotive  at  Pen-y-darran  perhaps  contributed  to  deter 
him  from  proceeding  farther ;  but  he  had  the  Wylam  wooden 
tram-way  taken  up  in  1808,  and  a  plate-way  of  cast  iron  laid 

*  John  Steele  was  one  of  the  many  "born  mechanics"  of  the  Northumberland  dis- 
trict. When  a  boy  at  Colliery  Dykes,  his  native  place,  he  was  noted  for  his  "turn 
for  machinery."  He  used  to  take  his  playfellows  home  to  see  and  admire  his  imita- 
tions of  pit-engines.  While  a  mere  youth  he  lost  his  leg  by  an  accident ;  and  those 
who  remember  him  at  Whinfield's  speak  of  his  hopping  about  the  locomotive,  of 
which  he  was  very  proud,  upon  his  wooden  leg.  It  was  a  great  disappointment  to 
him  when  Mr.  Blackett  refused  to  take  the  engine.  One  day  he  took  a  friend  to 
look  at  it  when  reduced  to  its  degraded  office  of  blowing  the  cupola  bellows ;  and,  re- 
ferring to  the  cause  of  its  rejection,  he  observed  that  he  was  certain  it  would  succeed, 
if  made  sufficiently  heavy.  "Our  master, "he  continued,  "  will  not  be  at  the  ex- 
pense of  following  it  up ;  but  depend  upon  it  the  day  will  come  when  such  an  engine 
will  be  fairly  tried,  and  then  it  will  be  found  to  answer."  Steele  was  afterward  ex- 
tensively employed  by  the  British  government  in  raising  sunken  ships ;  and  later  in 
life  he  established  engine-works  at  Rouen,  where  he  made  marine-engines  for  the 
French  government.  He  was  unfortunately  killed  by  the  explosion  of  an  engine- 
boiler  (with  the  safety-valve  of  which  something  had  gone  wrong)  when  on  an  ex- 
perimental trip  with  one  of  the  steamers  fitted  up  by  himself,  and  on  his  way  to  En- 
gland to  visit  his  family  near  Newcastle. 


CHAP.  V.] 


BLENKINSOP' S  LEEDS  ENGINE. 


155 


down  instead — a  single  line  furnished  with  sidings  to  enable  the 
laden  wagons  to  pass  the  empty  ones.  The  new  iron  road  proved 
so  much  smoother  than  the  old  wooden  one,  that  a  single  horse, 
instead  of  drawing  one,  was  enabled  to  draw  two,  or  even  three 
laden  wagons. 

Although  the  locomotive  seemed  about  to  be  lost  sight  of,  it 
was  not  forgotten.  In  1811,  Mr.  Blenkinsop,  the  manager  of  the 
Middleton  Collieries,  near  Leeds,  revived  the  idea  of  employing 
it  in  lieu  of  horses  to  haul  the  coals  along  his  tram-way.  Mr. 
Blenkinsop,  in  the  patent  which  he  took  out  for  his  proposed  en- 
gine, followed  in  many  respects  the  design  of  Trevithick ;  but, 
with  the  help  of  Matthew  Murray,  of  Leeds,  one  of  the  most  in- 
genious mechanics  of  his  day,  he  introduced  several  important 
and  valuable  modifications.  Thus  he  employed  two  cylinders  of 
8  in.  diameter  instead  of  one,  as  in  Trevithick's  engine.  These 
cylinders  were  placed  vertically,  and  immersed  for  more  than 
half  their  length  in  the  steam  space  of  the  boiler.  The  eduction 


BLEXKIJiSOF'8  LEEDS  ENGINE. 


!56  BLENKINSOP'S  LEEDS  ENGINE.  [PAHT  H. 

pipes  met  in  a  single  tube  at  the  top,  and  threw  the  steam  into 
the  air.  The  boiler  was  cylindrical  in  form,  but  of  cast  iron. 
It  had  one  flue,  the  fire  being  at  one  end  and  the  chimney  at  the 
other.  The  engine  was  supported  on  a  carriage  without  springs, 
resting  directly  upon  two  pairs  of  wheels  and  axles  unconnected 
with  the  working  parts,  and  which  merely  served  to  carry  the 
engine  upon  the  rails.  The  motion  was  effected  in  this  way: 
the  piston-rods,  by  means  of  cross-heads,  worked  the  connecting- 
rods,  which  came  down  to  two  cranks  on  each  side  below  the 
boiler,  placed  at  right  angles  in  order  to  pass  their  centres  with 
certainty.  These  cranks  worked  two  shafts  fixed  across  the  en- 
gine, on  which  were  small-toothed  wheels  working  into  a  larger 
one  between  them ;  and  on  the  axis  of  this  large  wheel,  outside 
the  framing,  were  the  driving-wheels,  one  of  which  was  toothed, 
and  worked  into  a  rack  on  one  side  of  the  railway. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  principal  new  features  in  this  en- 
gine were  the  two  cylinders  and  the  toothed- wheel  working  into 
a  rack-rail.  Mr.  Blenkinsop  contrived  the  latter  expedient  in  or- 
der to  insure  sufficient  adhesion  between  the  wheel  and  the  road, 
supposing  that  smooth  wheels  and  smooth  rails  would  be  insuffi- 
cient for  the  purpose.  Clumsy  and  slow  though  the  engine  was 
compared  with  modern  locomotives,  it  was  nevertheless  a  success. 
It  was  the  first  engine  that  plied  regularly  upon  any  railway, 
doing  useful  work ;  and  it  continued  so  employed  for  more  than 
twenty  years.  What  was  more,  it  was  a  commercial  success,  for 
its  employment  was  found  to  be  economical  compared  with  horse- 
power. In  a  letter  to  Sir  John  Sinclair,  Mr.  Blenkinsop  stated 
that  his  engine  weighed  five  tons ;  consumed  two  thirds  of  a  hun- 
dred weight  of  coals  and  fifty  gallons  of  water  per  hour ;  drew 
twenty-seven  wagons,  weighing  ninety-four  tons,  on  a  dead  level, 
at  three  and  a  half  miles -an  hour,  or  fifteen  tons  up  an  ascent 
of  2  in.  in  the  yard ;  thU  when  "  lightly  loaded"  it  traveled  at  a 
speed  of  ten  miles  an  hour ;  that  it  did  the  work  of  sixteen  horses 
in  twelve  hours ;  and  that  its  cost  was  £400.  Such  was  Mr.  Blen- 
kinsop's  own  account  of  the  performances  of  his  engine,  which 
was  for  a  long  time  regarded  as  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  neigh- 
borhood.* 

*  Thomas  Gray,  a  native  of  Leeds,  was  an  enthusiastic  believer  in  the  new  tractive 
power,  and  wherever  he  went  he  preached  up  railways  and  Blenkinsop's  locomotive. 


CHAP.V.]  A  LOCOMOTIVE  WITH  LEGS.  157 

The  Messrs.  Chapman,  of  Newcastle,  in  1812  endeavored  to 
overcome  the  same  fictitious  difficulty  of  the  want  of  adhesion 
between  the  wheel  and  the  rail  by  patenting  a  locomotive  to 
work  along  the  road  by  means  of  a  chain  stretched  from  one  end 
of  it  to  the  other.  This  chain  was  passed  once  round  a  grooved 
barrel-wheel  under  the  centre  of  the  engine,  so  that  when  the 
wheel  turned,  the  locomotive,  as  it  were,  dragged  itself  along  the 
railway.  An  engine  constructed  after  this  plan  was  tried  on  the 
Heatoii  Railway,  near  Newcastle ;  but  it  was  so  clumsy  in  action, 
there  was  so  great  a  loss  of  power  by  friction,  and  it  was  found 
to  be  so  expensive  and  difficult  to  keep  in  repair,  that  it  was  very 
soon  abandoned.  Another  remarkable  expedient  was  adopted  by 
Mr.  Brunt  on,  of  the  Butterley  Works,  Derbyshire,  who  in  1813 
patented  his  Mechanical  Traveler,  to  go  upon  legs  working  al- 
ternately like  those  of  a  horse.*  But  this  engine  never  got  be- 
yond the  experimental  state,  for,  at  its  very  first  trial,  the  driver, 
to  make  sure  of  a  good  start,  overloaded  the  safety-valve,  when 
the  boiler  burst  and  killed  a  number  of  the  by-standers,  wounding 
many  more.  These,  and  other  contrivances  with  the  same  object, 
projected  about  the  same  time,  show  that  invention  was  busily  at 
work,  and  that  many  minds  were  anxiously  laboring  to  solve  the 
problem  of  steam  locomotion  on  railways. 

Mr.  Blackett,  of  Wylam,  was  encouraged  by  the  success  of  Mr. 
Blenkinsop's  experiment,  and  again  he  resolved  to  make  a  trial 
of  the  locomotive  upon  his  wagon-way.  Accordingly,  in  1812, 
he  ordered  a  second  engine,  which  was  so  designed  as  to  work 
with  a  toothed  driving-wheel  upon  a  rack-rail  as  at  Leeds.  This 

While  he  was  living  at  Brussels  in  1816,  a  canal  to  Charleroi  was  under  considera- 
tion, on  which  he  seized  the  opportunity  of  urging  the  superior  merits  of  a  railway. 
When  he  returned  to  England  in  1 820,  he  wrote  a  book  upon  the  subject,  entitled, 
"  Observations  on  a  General  Iron  Railway,"  in  which  he  strongly  advocated  the  ad- 
vantages of  railways  generally,  giving  as  a  frontispiece  to  the  book  an  engraving  of 
Blenkinsop's  engine.  And  several  years  after  the  opening  of  the  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester Railway  we  find  Thomas  Gray,  true  to  his  first  love,  urging  in  the  "Mechan- 
ics' Magazine"  the  superiority  of  Blenkinsop's  cogged  wheel  and  rail  over  the  smooth 
road  and  rail  of  the  modern  railway. 

*  Other  machines  with  legs  were  patented  in  the  following  year  by  Lewis  Gompertz 
and  by  Thomas  Tindall.  In  Tindall's  specification  it  is  provided  that  the  power  of 
the  engine  is  to  be  assisted  by  a  horizontal  windmill;  and  the  four  pushers,  or  legs, 
are  to  be  caused  to  come  successively  in  contact  with  the  ground,  and  impel  the  car- 
riage. 


158  MR.  BLACKETT'S  LOCOMOTIVE.  [PAKT  H. 

locomotive  was  constructed  by  Thomas  Waters,  of  Gateshead, 
under  the  superintendence  of  Jonathan  Foster,  Mr.  Blackett's 
principal  engine-wright.  It  was  a  combination  of  Trevithick's 
and  Blenkinsop's  engines ;  but  it  was  of  a  more  awkward  con- 
struction than  either.  Like  Trevithick's,  it  had  a  single  cylinder 
with  a  fly-wheel,  which  Blenkinsop  had  discarded.  The  boiler 
was  of  cast  iron.  Jonathan  Foster  described  it  to  the  author  in 
1854  as  "  a  strange  machine,  with  lots  of  pumps,  cog-wheels,  and 
plugs,  requiring  constant  attention  while  at  work."  The  weight 
of  the  whole  was  about  six  tons. 

When  finished,  it  was  conveyed  to  Wylam  on  a  wagon,  and 
there  mounted  upon  a  wooden  frame,  supported  by  four  pairs  of 
wheels,  which  had  been  constructed  for  its  reception.  A  barrel 
of  water,  placed  on  another  frame  upon  wheels,  was  attached  to 
it  as  a  tender.  After  a  great  deal  of  labor,  the  cumbrous  ma- 
chine was  got  upon  the  road.  At  first  it  would  not  move  an 
inch.  Its  maker,  Tommy  Waters,  became  impatient,  and  at  length 
enraged,  and,  taking  hold  of  the  lever  of  the  safety-valve,  declared 
in  his  desperation  that  "  either  she  or  he  should  go."  At  length 
the  machinery  was  set  in  motion,  on  which,  as  Jpnathan  Foster 
described  to  the  author, "  she  flew  all  to  pieces,  and  it  was  the 
biggest  wonder  i'  the  world  that  we  were  not  all  blewn  up."  The 
incompetent  and  useless  engine  was  declared  to  be  a  failure ;  it 
was  shortly  after  dismounted  and  sold ;  and  Mr.  Blackett's  praise- 
worthy efforts  thus  far  proved  in  vain. 

He  was  still,  however,  desirous  of  testing  the  practicability  of 
employing  locomotive  power  in  working  the  coal  down  to  Lem- 
ington,  and  he  determined  on  making  yet  another  trial.  He  ac- 
cordingly directed  his  engine-wright,  Jonathan  Foster,  to  proceed 
with  the  building  of  a  third  engine  in  the  Wylam  workshops. 
This  new  locomotive  had  a  single  8-inch  cylinder,  was  provided 
with  a  fly-wheel  like  its  predecessor,  and  the  driving-wheel  was 
cogged  on  one  side  to  enable  it  to  travel  in  the  rack-rail  laid 
along  the  road.  The  engine  proved  more  successful  than  the 
former  one,  and  it  was  found  capable  of  dragging  eight  or  nine 
loaded  wagons,  though  at  the  rate  of  little  more  than  a  mile  an 
hour,  from  the  colliery  to  the  shipping-place.  It  sometimes  took 
six  hours  to  perform  the  journey  of  five  miles.  Its  weight  was 
found  too  great  for  the  road,  and  the  cast-iron  plates  were  con- 


CHAP.  V.]     BLACKETT'S  SECOND  ENGINE  A  FAILURE.  159 

stantly  breaking.  It  was  also  very  apt  to  get  off  the  rack-rail, 
and  then  it  stood  still.  The  driver  was  one  day  asked  how  he 
got  on.  "  Get  on  ?"  said  he, "  we  don't  get  on ;  we  only  get  off !" 
On  such  occasions,  horses  had  to  be  sent  out  to  drag  the  wagons 
as  before,  and  others  to  haul  the  engine  back  to  the  workshops. 
It  was  constantly  getting  out  of  order ;  its  plugs,  pumps,  or  cranks 
got  wrong,  and  it  was  under  repair  as  often  as  at  work.  At  length 
it  became  so  cranky  that  the  horses  were  usually  sent  after  it  to 
drag  it  along  when  it  gave  up,  and  the  workmen  generally  de- 
clared it  to  be  a  "  perfect  plague."  Mr.  Blackett  did  not  obtain 
credit  among  his  neighbors  for  these  experiments.  Many  laugh- 
ed at  his  machines,  regarding  them  only  in  the  light  of  crotchets 
— frequently  quoting  the  proverb  of  "  a  fool  and  his  money  are 
soon  parted."  Others  regarded  them  as  absurd  innovations  on 
the  established  method  of  hauling  coal,  and  pronounced  that  they 
would  "  never  answer." 

Notwithstanding,  however,  the  comparative  failure  of  the  sec- 
ond locomotive,  Mr.^ackett  persevered  with  his  experiments, 
lie  was  zealously  assisted  by  Jonathan  Foster,  the  engine- wright, 
and  "William  Hedley,  the  viewer  of  the  colliery,  a  highly  ingen- 
ious person,  who  proved  of  great  use  in  carrying  out  the  experi- 
ments to  a  successful  issue.  One  of  the  chief  causes  of  failure 
being  the  rack-rail,  the  idea  occurred  to  Mr.  Hedley  that  it  might 
be  possible  to  secure  sufficient  adhesion  between  the  wheel  and 
the  rail  by  the  mere  weight  of  the  engine,  and  he  proceeded  to 
make  a  series  of  experiments  for  the  purpose  of  determining  this 
problem.  He  had  a  frame  placed  on  four  wheels,  and  fitted  up 
with  windlasses  attached  by  gearing  to  the  several  wheels.  The 
frame  having  been  properly  weighted,  six  men  were  set  to  work 
the  windlasses,  when  it  was  found  that  the  adhesion  of  the  smooth 
wheels  on  the  smooth  rails  was  quite  sufficient  to  enable  them  to 
propel  the  machine  without  slipping.  Having  then  found  the 
proportion  which  the  power  bore  to  the  weight,  he  demonstrated 
by  successive  experiments  that  the  weight  of  the  engine  would 
of  itself  produce  sufficient  adhesion  to  enable  it  to  draw  upon  a 
smooth  railroad  the  requisite  number  of  wagons  in  all  kinds  of 
weather.  And  thus  was  the  fallacy  which  had  heretofore  pre- 
vailed on  this  subject  completely  exploded,  and  it  was  satisfacto- 
rily proved  that  rack-rails,  toothed  wheels,  endless  chains,  and 


160 


IMPROVED  WYLAM  ENGINE. 


[PART  II. 


legs,  were  alike  unnecessary  for  the  efficient  traction  of  loaded 
wagons  upon  a  moderately  level  road.* 

From  this  time  forward,  considerably  less  difficulty  was  expe- 
rienced in  working  the  coal-trains  upon  the  Wylam  tram-road. 
At  length  the  rack-rail  was  dispensed  with.  The  road  was  laid 
with  heavier  rails ;  the  working  of  the  old  engine  was  improved ; 
and  a  new  engine  was  shortly  after  built  and  placed  upon  the 
road,  still  on  eight  wheels,  driven  by  seven  rack-wheels  working 
inside  them — with  a  wrought-iron  boiler  through  which  the  flue 
was  returned  so  as  largely  to  increase  the  heating  surface,  and 
thus  give  increased  power  to  the  engine,  f  Below  is  a  represen- 
tation of  this  improved  Wylam  engine. 


WYLAM   BSQINB. 

*  Mr.  Hedley  took  out  a  patent  to  secure  his  invention,  dated  the  13th  of  March, 
1813.  Specification  No.  3666.  If  it  be  true,  as  alleged,  that  the  wheels  of  Trevi- 
thick's  first  locomotive  were  smooth,  it  seems  strange  that  the  fallacy  should  ever 
have  existed. 

t  By  the  year  1825,  the  progress  made  on  the  Wylam  Railroad  was  thus  described 
by  Mr.  Mackenzie  in  his  "  History  of  Northumberland :"  "A  stranger,"  said  he,  "is 
struck  with  surprise  and  astonishment  on  seeing  a  locomotive  engine  moving  majes- 
tically along  the  road  at  the  rate  of  four  or  five  miles  an  hour,  drawing  along  from 
ten  to  fourteen  loaded  wagons,  weighing  about  2  If  tons ;  and  his  surprise  is  increased 
on  witnessing  the  extraordinary  facility  with  which  the  engine  is  managed.  This  in- 
vention is  a  noble  triumph  of  science." 


CHAP.  V.]  COAL  HA  ULAGE  A  T  KILLING  WORTH.  161 

As  may  readily  be  imagined,  the  jets  of  steam  from  the  piston, 
blowing  off  into  the  air  at  high  pressure  while  the  engine  was  in 
motion,  caused  considerable  annoyance  to  horses  passing  along 
the  Wylam  road,  at  that  time  a  public  highway.  The  nuisance 
was  felt  to  be  almost  intolerable,  and  a  neighboring  gentleman 
threatened  to  have  it  put  down.  To  diminish  the  noise  as  much 
as  possible,  Mr.  Blackett  gave  orders  that  so  soon  as  any  horse,  or 
vehicle  drawn  by  horses,  came  in  sight,  the  locomotive  was  to  be 
stopped,  and  the  frightful  blast  of  the  engine  thus  suspended  until 
the  passing  animals  had  got  out  of  sight.  Much  interruption  was 
thus  caused  to  the  working  of  the  railway,  and  it  excited  consid- 
erable dissatisfaction  among  the  workmen.  The  following  plan 
was  adopted  to  abate  the  nuisance :  a  reservoir  was  provided  im- 
mediately behind  the  chimney  (as  shown  in  the  opposite  cut) 
into  wliich  the  waste  steam  was  thrown  after  it  had  performed  its 
office  in  the  cylinder,  and  from  this  reservoir  the  steam  gradually 
escaped  into  the  atmosphere  without  noise.  This  arrangement 
was  devised  with  the  express  object  of  preventing  a  blast  in  the 
chimney,  the  value  of  which,  as  we  shall  subsequently  find,  was 
not  detected  until  George  Stephenson,  adopting  it  with  a  precon- 
ceived design  and  purpose,  demonstrated  its  importance  and  value 
— as  being,  in  fact,  tHe  very  lif e-breath  of  the  locomotive  engine. 

While  Mr.  Blackett  was  thus  experimenting  and  building  loco- 
motives at  Wylam,  George  Stephenson  was  anxiously  studying 
the  same  subject  at  Killingworth.  He  was  no  sooner  appointed 
engine-wright  of  the  collieries  than  hi  a  attention  was  directed  to 
the  means  of  more  economically  hauling  the  coal  from  the  pits  to 
the  river  side.  We  have  seen  that  one  of  the  first  important  im- 
provements which  he  made,  after  being  placed  in  charge  of  the 
colliery  machinery,  was  to  apply  the  surplus  power  of  a  pumping 
steam-engine  fixed  underground,  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  the 
coals  out  of  the  deeper  workings  of  the  Killingworth  mines,  by 
which  he  succeeded  in  effecting  a  large  reduction  in  the  expend- 
iture on  manual  and  horse  labor. 

The  coals,  when  brought  above  ground,  had  next  to  be  labori- 
ously dragged  by  means  of  horses  to  the  shipping  staiths  on  the 
Tyne,  several  miles  distant.  The  adoption  of  a  tram-road,  it  is 
true,  had  tended  to  facilitate  their  transit ;  nevertheless,  the  haul- 
age was  both  tedious  and  expensive.  With  the  view  of  econo- 

L 


162          STEPHENSON'S  STUDY  OF  THE  LOCOMOTIVE.  [PART  II. 

mlzing  labor,  Stephenson  laid  down  inclined  planes  where  the  na- 
ture of  the  ground  would  admit  of  this  expedient  being  adopted. 
Thus  a  train  of  full  wagons  let  down  the  incline  by  means  of  a 
rope  running  over  wheels  laid  along  the  tram-road,  the  other  end 
of  which  was  attached  to  a  tram  of  empty  wagons  placed  at  the 
bottom  of  the  parallel  road  on  the  same  incline,  dragged  them  up 
by  the  simple  power  of  gravity.  But  this  applied  only  to  a  com- 
paratively small  part  of  the  road.  An  economical  method  of 
working  the  coal-trains,  instead  of  by  means  of  horses — the  keep 
of  which  was  at  that  time  very  costly,  in  consequence  of  the  high 
price  of  corn — was  still  a  great  desideratum,-and  the  best  practi- 
cal minds  in  the  collieries  were  actively  engaged  in  trying  to  solve 
the  problem. 

In  the  first  place,  Stephenson  resolved  to  make  himself  thor- 
oughly acquainted  with  what  had  already  been  done.  Mr.  Black- 
ett's  engines  were  working  daily  at  Wylam,  past  the  cottage  where 
he  had  been  born,  and  thither  he  frequently  went*  to  inspect  the 
improvements  made  by  Mr.  Blackett  from  time  to  time  both  in 
the  locomotive  and  in  the  plate-way  along  which  it  worked.  Jon- 
athan Foster  informed  us  that,  after  one  of  these  visits,  Stephen- 
son  declared  to  him  his  conviction  that  a  much  more  effective  en- 
gine might  be  made,  that  should  work  more  steadily  and  draw 
the  load  more  effectively. 

He  had  also  the  advantage,  about  the  same  time,  of  seeing  one 
of  Blenkinsop's  Leeds  engines,  which  was  placed  on  the  tram- way 
leading  from  the  collieries  of  Kenton  and  Coxlodge,  on  the  2d  of 
September,  1813.  This  locomotive  drew  sixteen  chaldron  wag- 
ons, containing  an  aggregate  weight  of  seventy  tons,  at  the  rate 
of  about  three  miles  an  hour.  George  Stephenson  and  several  of 
the  Killingworth  men  were  among  the  crowd  of  spectators  that 

*  At  the  Stephenson  Memorial  meeting  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  26th  of  October, 
1858,  Mr.  Hugh  Taylor,  chairman  of  the  Northern  Coal-owners,  gave  the  following 
account  of  one  of  such  visits  made  by  Stephenson  to  Wylam,  in  the  company  of  Mr. 
Nicholas  Wood  and  himself:  "It  was,  I  think,  in  1812,  that  Mr.  Stephenson  and 
Mr.  Wood  came  to  my  house,  then  at  Newburn,  and  after  we  had  dined,  we  went  and 
examined  the  locomotive  then  on  Mr.  Blackett's  wagon-way.  At  that  early  date  it 
went  by  a  sort  of  cog-wheel;  there  was  also  something  of  a  chain  to  it.  There  was 
no  idea  that  the  machine  would  be  sufficiently  adhesive  to  the  rails  by  the  action  of 
its  own  weight ;  but  I  remember  a  man  going  before— that  was  after  the  chain  was 
abrogated— and  scattering  ash*s  on  the  rails,  in  order  to  give  it  adhesiveness,  and  two 
or  three  miles  an  hour  was  about  the  rate  of  progress." 


CHAP.  V.]        HE  CONTEMPLA  TES  ITS  IMPRO  VEMENT.  1 63 

day ;  and  after  examining  the  engine  and  observing  its  perform- 
ances, he  remarked  to  his  companions  that  "  he  thought  he  could 
make  a  better  engine  than  that,  to  go  upon  legs."  Probably  he 
had  heard  of  the  invention  of  Brunton,  whose  patent  had  by  this 
time  been  published,  and  proved  the  subject  of  much  curious 
speculation  in  the  colliery  districts.  Certain  it  is  that,  shortly 
after  the  inspection  of  the  Coxlodge  engine,  he  contemplated  the 
construction  of  a  new  locomotive,  wliich  was  to  surpass  all  that 
had  preceded  it.  He  observed  that  those  engines  which  had  been 
constructed  up  to  this  time,  however  ingenious  in  their  arrange- 
ments, were  in  a  great  measure  practical  failures.  Mr.  Blackett's 
was  as  yet  both  clumsy  and  expensive.  Chapman's  had  been  re- 
moved from  the  Heaton  tram-way  in  1812,  and  was  regarded  as 
a  total  failure.  And  the  Blenkinsop  engine  at  Coxlodge  was 
found  very  unsteady  and  costly  in  its  working ;  besides,  it  pulled 
the  rails  to  pieces,  the  entire  strain  being  upon  the  rack-rail  on 
one  side  of  the  road.  The  boiler,  however,  having  shortly  blown 
up,  there  was  an  end  of  that  engine,  and  the  colliery  owners  did 
not  feel  encouraged  to  try  any  farther  experiment. 

An  efficient  and  economical  working  locomotive  engine,  there- 
fore, still  remained  to  be  invented,  and  to  accomplish  this  object 
Stephenson  now  applied  himself.  Profiting  by  what  his  prede- 
cessors had  done,  warned  by  their  failures  and  encouraged  by 
their  partial  successes,  he  commenced  his  labors.  There  was 
still  wanting  the  man  who  should  accomplish  for  the  locomotive 
what  James  Watt  had  done  for  the  steam-engine,  and  combine 
in  a  complete  form  the  best  points  in  the  separate  plans  of  oth- 
ers, embodying  with  them  such  original  inventions  and  adapta- 
tions of  his  own  as  to  entitle  him  to  the  merit  of  inventing  the 
working  locomotive,  as  James  Watt  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  in- 
ventor of  the  working  condensing  engine.  This  was  the  great 
work  upon  which  George  Stephenson  now  entered,  though  prob- 
ably without  any  adequate  idea  of  the  ultimate  importance  of 
his  labors  to  society  and  civilization. 

He  proceeded  to  bring  the  subject  of  constructing  a  "  Travel- 
ing Engine,"  as  he  then  denominated  the  locomotive,  under  the 
notice  of  the  lessees  of  the  Killing  worth  Colliery,  in  the  year 
1813.  Lord  Ravensworth,  the  principal  partner,  had  already 
formed  a  very  favorable  opinion  of  the  new  colliery,  engine- 


164  STEPHENSON'S  FIRST  LOCOMOTIVE.  [PART  II. 

wright  from  the  improvements  which  he  had  effected  in  the  col- 
liery engines,  both  above  and  below  ground  ;  and,  after  consider- 
ing the  matter,  and  hearing  Stephenson's  explanations,  he  au- 
thorized him  to  proceed  with  the  construction  of  a  locomotive, 
though  his  lordship  was  by  some  called  a  fool  for  advancing 
money  for  such  a  purpose.  "  The  first  locomotive  that  I  made," 
said  Stephenson,  many  years  after,*  when  speaking  of  his  early 
career  at  a  public  meeting  in  Newcastle,  "  was  at  Killingworth 
Colliery,  and  with  Lord  Kavensworth's  money.  Yes,  Lord  Ha- 
vens worth  and  partners  were  the  first  to  intrust  me,  thirty-two 
years  since,  with  money  to  make  a  locomotive  engine.  I  said  to 
my  friends,  there  was  no  limit  to  the  speed  of  such  an  engine,  if 
the  works  could  be  made  to  stand." 

Our  engine-  wright  had,  however,  many  obstacles  to  encounter 
before  he  could  get  fairly  to  work  with  the  erection  of  his  loco- 
motive. His  chief  difficulty  was  in  finding  workmen  sufficiently 
skilled  in  mechanics  and  in  the  use  of  tools  to  follow  his  instruc- 
tions and  embody  his  designs  in  a  practical  shape.  The  tools 
then  in  use  about  the  collieries  were  rude  and  clumsy,  and  there 
were  no  such  facilities  as  now  exist  for  turning  out  machinery 
of  an  entirely  new  character.  Stephenson  was  under  the  neces- 
sity of  working  with  such  men  and  tools  as  were  at  his  command, 
and  he  had  in  a  great  measure  to  train  and  instruct  the  workmen 
himself.  The  engine  was  built  in  the  workshops  at  the  "West 
Moor,  the  leading  mechanic  being  John  Thirlwall,  the  colliery 
blacksmith,  an  excellent  mechanic  in  his  way,  though  quite  new 
to  the  work  now  intrusted  to  him. 

In  this  first  locomotive  constructed  at  Killingworth,  Stephen- 
son  to  some  extent  followed  the  plan  of  Blenkinsop's  engine. 
The  wrought-iron  boiler  was  cylindrical,  eight  feet  in  length  and 
thirty-four  inches  in  diameter,  with  an  internal  flue-tube  twenty 
inches  wide  passing  through  it.  The  engine  had  two  vertical 
cylinders  of  eight  inches  diame- 
ter and  two  feet  stroke  let  into 
the  boiler,  which  worked  the  pro- 
pelling gear  with  cross-heads  and 
connecting-rods.  The  power  of 
the  two  cylinders  was  combined 


*  Speech  at  the  opening  of  the  Newcastle  and  Darlington  Railway,  June  18,1844. 


CHAP.  V.]  STJEPHENSON'S  FIRST  LOCOMOTIVE.  165 

by  means  of  spur-wheels,  which  communicated  the  motive  power 
to  the  wheels  supporting  the  engine  on  the  rail,  instead  of,  as  in 
Blenkinsop's  engine,  to  cog-wheels  which  acted  on  the  cogged 
rail  independent  of*  the  four  supporting  wheels.  The  engine 
thus  worked  upon  what  is  termed  the  second  motion.  The  chim- 
ney was  of  wrought  iron,  round  which  was  a  chamber  extending 
back  to  the  feed-pumps,  for  the  purpose  of  heating  the  water 
previous  to  its  injection  into  the  boiler.  The  engine  had  no 
springs,  and  was  mounted  on  a  wooden  frame  supported  on  four 
wheels.  In  order  to  neutralize  as  much  as  possible  the  jolts  and 
shocks  which  such  an  engine  would  necessarily  encounter  from 
the  obstacles  and  inequalities  of  the  then  very  imperfect  plate- 
way,  the  water-barrel  which  served  for  a  tender  was  fixed  to  the 
end  of  a  lever  and  weighted,  the  other  end  of  the  lever  being 
connected  with  the  frame  of  the  locomotive  carriage.  By  this 
means  the  weight  of  the  two  was  more  equally  distributed, 
though  the  contrivance  did  not  by  any  means  compensate  for 
the  total  absence  of  springs. 

The  wheels  of  the  locomotive  were  all  smooth,  Stephenson 
having  satisfied  himself  by  experiment  that  the  adhesion  between 
the  wheels  of  a  loaded  engine  and  the  rail  would  be  sufficient  for 
the  purpose  of  traction.  Kobert  Stephenson  informed  us  that 
his  father  caused  a  number  of  workmen  to  mount  upon  the  wheels 
of  a  wagon  moderately  loaded,  and  throw  their  entire  weight 
upon  the  spokes  on  one  side,  when  he  found  that  the  wagon 
could  thus  be  easily  propelled  forward  without  the  wheels  slip- 
ping. This,  together  with  other  experiments,  satisfied  him,  as  it 
had  already  satisfied  Mr.  Hedley,  of  the  expediency  of  adopting 
smooth  wheels  on  his  engine,  and  it  was  so  made  accordingly. 

The  engine  was,  after  much  labor  and  anxiety,  and  frequent 
alterations  of  parts,  at  length  brought  to  completion,  having  been 
about  ten  months  in  hand.  It  was  placed  upon  the  Killingworth 
Kailway  on  the  25th  of  July,  1814,  and  its  powers  were  tried  on 
the  same  day.  On  an  ascending  gradient  of  1  in  450,  the  engine 
succeeded  in  drawing  after  it  eight  loaded  carriages  of  thirty 
tons'  weight  at  about  four  miles  an  hour ;  and  for  some  time  aft- 
er it  continued  regularly  at  work. 

Although  a  considerable  advance  upon  previous  locomotives, 
"  Blucher"  (as  the  engine  was  popularly  called)  was  nevertheless 


166  ROBERT  STEPHENSON'S  NARRATIVE.  [PAST  II. 

a  somewhat  cumbrous  and  clumsy  machine.  The  parts  were 
huddled  together.  The  boiler  constituted  the  principal  feature ; 
and,  being  the  foundation  of  the  other  parts,  it  was  made  to  do 
duty  not  only  as  a  generator  of  steam,  but  also  as  a  basis  for  the 
fixings  of  the  machinery  and  for  the  bearings  of  the  wheels  and 
axles.  The  want  of  springs  was  seriously  felt ;  and  the  progress 
of  the  engine  was  a  succession  of  jolts,  causing  considerable  de- 
rangement to  the  machinery.  The  mode  of  communicating  the 
motive  power  to  the  wheels  by  means  of  the  spur-gear  also  caused 
frequent  jerks,  each  cylinder  alternately  propelling  or  becoming 
propelled  by  the  other,  as  the  pressure  of  the  one  upon  the  wheels 
became  greater  or  less  than  the  pressure  of  the  other ;  and,  when 
the  teeth  of  the  cog-wheels  became  at  all  worn,  a  rattling  noise 
was  produced  during  the  traveling  of  the  engine. 

As  the  principal  test  of  the  success  of  the  locomotive  was  its 
economy  as  compared  with  horse-power,  careful  calculations  were 
made  with  the  view  of  ascertaining  this  important  point.  The 
result  was,  that  it  was  found  the  working  of  the  engine  was  at 
first  barely  economical;  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  the  steam- 
power  and  the  horse-power  were  ascertained  to  be  as  nearly  as 
possible  upon  a  par  in  point  of  cost. 

"We  give  the  remainder  of  the  history  of  George  Stephenson's 
efforts  to  produce  an  economical  working  locomotive  in  the  words 
of  his  son  Kobert,  as  communicated  to  the  author  in  1856,  for 
the  purposes  of  his  father's  "  Life." 

"  A  few  months  of  experience  and  careful  observation  upon  the 
operation  of  this  (his  first)  engine  convinced  my  father  that  the  com- 
plication arising  out  of  the  action  of  the  two  cylinders  being  com- 
bined by  spur-wheels  would  prevent  their  coming  into  practical  ap- 
plication. He  then  directed  his  attention  to  an  entire  change  in  the 
construction  and  mechanical  arrangements,  and  in  the  following 
year  took  out  a  patent,  dated  February  28th,  1815,  for  an  engine 
which  combined  in  a  remarkable  degree  the  essential  requisites  of 
an  economical  locomotive — that  is  to  say,  few  parts,  simplicity  in 
their  action,  and  great  simplicity  in  the  mode  by  which  power  was 
communicated  to  the  wheels  supporting  the  engine. 

"This  second  engine  consisted  as  before  of  two  vertical  cylinders, 
which  communicated  directly  with  each  pair  of  the  four  wheels  that 
supported  the  engine  by  a  cross-head  and  a  pair  of  connecting-rods ; 


CHAP.  V.]      STEPHENSON'S  SECOND  PATENT  ENGINE.  167 

but,  in  attempting  to  establish  a  direct  communication  between  the 
cylinders  and  the  wheels  that  rolled  upon  the  rails,  considerable  dif- 
ficulties presented  themselves.  The  ordinary  joints  could  not  be 
employed  to  unite  the  engine,  which  was  a  rigid  mass,  with  the 
wheels  rolling  upon  the  irregular  surface  of  the  rails ;  for  it  was  evi- 
dent that  the  two  rails  of  the  line  of  railway  could  not  always  be 
maintained  at  the  same  level  with  respect  to  each  other — that  one 
wheel  at  the  end  of  the  axle  might  be  depressed  into  a  part  of  the 
line  which  had  subsided,  while  the  other  would  be  elevated.  In 
such  a  position  of  the  axle  and  wheels  it  was  clear  that  a  rigid 
communication  between  the  cross-head  and  the  wheels  was  imprac- 
ticable. Hence  it  became  necessary  to  form  a  joint  at  the  top  of 
the  piston-rod  where  it  united  with  the  cross-head,  so  as  to  permit 
the  cross-head  always  to  preserve  complete  parallelism  with  the 
axle  of  the  wheels  with  which  it  was  in  communication. 

"  In  order  to  obtain  the  flexibility  combined  with  direct  action 
which  was  essential  for  insuring  power  and  avoiding  needless  fric- 
tion and  jars  from  irregularities  in  the  rail,  my  father  employed  the 
'  ball  and  socket'  joint  for  effecting  a  union  between  the  ends  of  the 
cross-heads  where  they  united  with  the  connecting-rods,  and  be- 
tween the  end  of  the  connecting-rods  where  they  were  united  with 
the  crank-pins  attached  to  each  driving-wheel.  By  this  arrange- 
ment the  parallelism  between  the  cross-head  and  the  axle  was  at  all 
times  maintained,  it  being  permitted  to  take  place  without  produc- 
ing jar  or  friction  upon  any  part  of  the  machine. 

"  The  next  important  point  was  to  combine  each  pair  of  wheels 
by  some  simple  mechanism,  instead  of  the  cog-wheels  which  had 
formerly  been  used.  My  father  began  by  inserting  each  axle  into 
two  cranks  at  right  angles  to  each  other,  with  rods  communicating 
horizontally  between  them.  An  engine  was  made  on  this  plan,  and 
answered  extremely  well.  But  at  that  period  (1815)  the  mechani- 
cal skill  of  the  country  was  not  equal  to  the  task  of  forging  cranked 
axles  of  the  soundness  and  strength  necessary  to  stand  the  jars  in- 
cident to  locomotive  work ;  so  my  father  was  compelled  to  fall  back 
upon  a  substitute  which,  though  less  simple  and  less  efficient,  was 
within  the  mechanical  capabilities  of  the  workmen  of  that  day, 
either  for  construction  or  repair.  He  adopted  a  chain  which  rolled 
over  indented  wheels  placed  on  the  centre  of  each  axle,  and  so  ar- 
ranged that  the  two  pairs  of  wheels  were  effectually  coupled  and 
made  to  keep  pace  with  each  other.  But  these  chains  after  a  few 
years'  use  became  stretched,  and  then  the  engines  were  liable  to  ir- 
regularity in  their  working,  especially  in  changing  from  working 


168  RQgERT  STEPHENSON'S  NARRATIVE.  [PAET  II. 

back  to  forward  again.  Nevertheless,  these  engines  continued  in 
profitable  use  upon  the  Killingworth  Colliery  Railway  for  some 
years.  Eventually  the  chain  was  laid  aside,  and  the  front  and  hind 
wheels  were  united  by  rods  on  the  outside,  instead  of  by  rods  and 
crank-ankles  inside,  as  specified  in  the  original  patent ;  and  this  ex- 
pedient completely  answered  the  purpose  required,  without  involv- 
ing any  expensive  or  difficult  workmanship. 


SECTION   OF  KUJJNQWORTH  LOCOMOTIVE,  1815. 

"Another  important  improvement  was  introduced  in  this  engine. 
The  eduction  steam  had  hitherto  been  allowed  to  escape  direct  into 
the  open  atmosphere ;  but  my  father,  having  observed  the  great  ve- 
locity with  which  the  waste-steam  escaped,  compared  with  the  veloc- 
ity with  which  the  smoke  issued  from  the  chimney  of  the  same  en- 
gine, thought  that  by  conveying  the  eduction  steam  into  the  chim- 
ney, and  there  allowing  it  to  escape  in  a  vertical  direction,  its  velocity 
would  be  imparted  to  the  smoke  from  the  engine,  or  to  the  ascend- 
ing current  of  air  in  the  chimney.  The  experiment  was  no  sooner 
made  than  the  power  of  the  engine  became  more  than  doubled ; 
combustion  was  stimulated,  as  it  were,  by  a  blast ;  consequently, 
the  power  of  the  boiler  lor  generating  steam  was  increased,  and, 


CHAP.  V.]  INVENTION  OF  TEE  STEAM-EL 


in  the  same  proportion,  the  useful  duty  of  the  engine  was  aug- 
mented. 

"Thus,  in  1815,  my  father  had  succeeded  in  manufacturing  an  en- 
gine which  included  the  following  important  improvements  on  all 
previous  attempts  in  the  same  direction  :  simple  and  direct  commu- 
nication between  the  cylinder  and  the  wheels  rolling  upon  the  rails  ; 
joint  adhesion  of  all  the  wheels,  attained  by  the  use  of  horizontal 
connecting-rods  ;  and,  finally,  a  beautiful  method  of  exciting  the 
combustion  of  fuel  by  employing  the  waste  steam  which  had  for- 
merly been  allowed  uselessly  to  escape.  It  is,  perhaps,  not  too  much 
to  say  that  this  engine,  as  a  mechanical  contrivance,  contained  the 
germ  of  all  that  has  since  been  effected.  It  may  be  regarded,  in 
fact,  as  a  type  of  the  present  locomotive  engine. 

"In  describing  my  father's  application  of  the  waste  steam  for  the 
purpose  of  increasing  the  intensity  of  combustion  in  the  boiler,  and 
thus  increasing  the  power  of  the  engine  without  adding  to  its 
weight,  and  while  claiming  for  this  engine  the  merit  of  being  a  type 
of  all  those  which  have  been  successfully  devised  since  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  observe  that  the  next  great  improvement  in  the  same  direc- 
tion, the  '  multitubular  boiler,'  which  took  place  some  years  later, 
could  never  have  been  used  without  the  help  of  that  simple  expe- 
dient, the  steam-blast,  by  which  power  only  the  burning  of  coke  was 
rendered  possible. 

"  I  can  not  pass  over  this  last-named  invention  of  my  father's 
without  remarking  how  slightly,  as  an  original  idea,  it  has  been  ap- 
preciated ;  and  yet  how  small  would  be  the  comparative  value  of 
the  locomotive  engine  of  the  present  day  without  the  application 
of  that  important  invention  ! 

"Engines  constructed  by  my  father  in  the  year  1818  upon  the 
principles  just  described  are  in  use  on  the  Killingworth  Colliery 
Railway  to  this  very  day  (1856),  conveying,  at  the  speed  of  per- 
haps five  or  six  miles  an  hour,  heavy  coal-trains,  probably  as  eco- 
nomically as  any  of  the  more  perfect  engines  now  in  use. 

"  There  was  another  remarkable  piece  of  ingenuity  in  this  ma- 
chine, which  was  completed  so  many  years  before  the  possibility  of 
steam-locomotion  became  an  object  of  general  commercial  interest 
and  Parliamentary  inquiry.  I  have  before  observed  that  up  to  and 
after  the  year  1818  there  was  no  such  class  of  skilled  mechanics, 
nor  were  there  such  machinery  and  tools  for  working  in  metals,  as 
are  now  at  the  disposal  of  inventors  and  manufacturers.  Among 
other  difficulties  of  a  similar  character,  it  was  not  possible  at  that 


170  INVENTION  OF  STEEL  SPRINGS.  [PART  II. 

time  to  construct  springs  of  sufficient  strength  to  support  the  im- 
proved engines.  The  rails  then  used  being  extremely  light,  the 
roads  became  worn  down  by  the  traffic,  and  occasionally  the  whole 
weight  of  the  engine,  instead  of  being  uniformly  distributed  over 
four  wheels,  was  thrown  almost  diagonally  upon  two.  In  order  to 
avoid  the  danger  arising  from  such  irregularities  in  the  road,  my 
father  arranged  the  boiler  so  that  it  was  supported  upon  the  frame 
of  the  engine  by  four  cylinders  which  opened  into  the  interior  of 
the  boiler.  These  cylinders  were  occupied  by  pistojis  with  rods, 
which  passed  downward  and  pressed  upon  the  upper  side  of  the 
axles.  The  cylinders,  opening  into  the  interior  of  the  boiler,  allow- 
ed the  pressure  of  steam  to  be  applied  to  the  upper  side  of  the  pis- 
ton, and  that  pressure  being  nearly  equal  to  the  support  of  one 
fourth  of  the  weight  of  the  engine,  each  axle,  whatever  might  be 
its  position,  had  the  same  amount  of  weight  to  bear,  and  conse- 
quently the  entire  weight  was  at  all  times  nearly  equally  distrib- 
uted among  the  wheels.  This  expedient  was  more  necessary  in 
this  case,  as  the  weight  of  the  new  locomotive  engines  far  exceeded 
that  of  the  carriages  which  had  hitherto  been  used  upon  colliery 
railways,  and  therefore  subjected  the  rails  to  much  greater  risk 
from  breakage.  And  this  mode  of  supporting  the  engine  remained 
in  use  until  the  progress  of  spring-making  had  considerably  ad- 
vanced, when  steel  springs  of  sufficient  strength  superseded  this 
highly  ingenious  mode  of  distributing  the  weight  of  the  engine  uni- 
formly among  the  wheels." 

The  invention  of  the  Steam-blast  by  George  Stephenson  in 
1815  was  fraught  with  the  most  important  consequences  to  rail- 
way locomotion,  and  it  is  not  saying  too. much  to  aver  that  the 
success  of  the  locomotive  has  been  in  a  great  measure  the  result 
of  its  adoption.  Without  the  steam-blast,  by  means  of  which  the 
intensity  of  combustion  is  maintained  at  its  highest  point,  pro- 
ducing a  correspondingly  rapid  evolution  of  steam,  high  rates  of 
speed  could  not  have  been  kept  up ;  the  advantages  of  the  mul- 
titubular  boiler  (afterward  invented)  could  never  have  been  fully 
tested ;  and  locomotives  might  still  have  been  dragging  them- 
selves unwieldily  along  at  little  more  than  five  or  six  miles  an 
hour. 

As  this  invention  has  been  the  subject  of  considerable  contro- 
versy, it  becomes  necessary  to  add  a  few  words  respecting  it  in 
this  place.  It  has  been  claimed  as  the  invention  of  Trevithick 


CHAP.  V.]  THE  STEAM-BLAST.  171 

in  1804,  of  Hedley  in  1814,  of  Goldsworthy  Gurney  in  1820,  and 
of  Timothy  Hackworth  in  1829.  With  respect  to  Trevithick,  it 
appears  that  he  discharged  the  waste  steam  into  the  chimney 
of  his  engine,  but  without  any  intention  of  thereby  producing  a 
blast  ;*  and  that  he  attached  no  value  to  the  expedient  is  suffi- 
ciently obvious  from  the  fact  that  in  1815  he  took  out  a  patent 
for  urging  the  fire  by  means  of  fanners,  similar  to  a  winnowing 
machine.  The  claim  put  forward  on  behalf  of  William  Hedley, 
that  he  invented  the  blast-pipe  for  the  Wylam  engine,  is  suffi- 
ciently contradicted  by  the  fact  that  the  Wylam  engine  had  no 
blast-pipe.  "  I  remember  the  Wylam  engine,"  Robert  Stephen- 
son  wrote  to  the  author  in  1857, "  and  I  am  positive  there  was  no 
blast-pipe."  On  the  contrary,  the  Wylam  engine  embodied  a  con- 
trivance for  the  express  purpose  of  preventing  a  blast.  This  is 
clearly  shown  by  the  drawing  and  description  of  it  contained  in 
the  first  edition  of  Nicholas  Wood's  "  Practical  Treatise  on  Hail- 
roads,"  published  in  1825.  This  evidence  is  all  the  more  valua- 
ble for  our  purpose  as  it  was  published  long  before  any  contro- 
versy had  arisen  as  to  the  authorship  of  the  invention,  and,  in- 
deed, before  it  was  believed  that  any  merit  whatever  belonged  to 
it.  And  it  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  Nicholas  Wood  himself, 
who  published  the  first  practical  work  on  railways,  did  not  at 
that  time  approve  of  the  steam-blast,  and  referred  to  the  Wylam 
engine  in  illustration  of  how  it  might  be  prevented. 

The  following  passage  from  Mr.  Wood's  book  clearly  describes 
the  express  object  and  purpose  for  which  George  Stephenson  in- 
vented and  applied  the  steam-blast  in  the  Killingworth  engines. 
Describing  their  action, Mr. Wood  says: 

"  The  steam  is  admitted  to  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  piston  by 
means  of  a  sliding  valve,  which,  being  moved  up  and  down  altern- 
ately, opens  a  communication  between  the  top  and  bottom  of  the 
cylinder  and  the  pipe  that  is  open  into  the  chimney  and  turns  up 

*  It  must,  however,  be  mentioned  that  Mr.  Zerah  Colburn,  in  his  excellent  work  on 
"Locomotive  Engineering  and  the  Mechanism  of  Railways,"  points  out  that  Mr. 
Davies  Gilbert  noted  the  effect  of  the  discharge  of  the  waste  steam  up  the  chimney 
of  Trevithick's  engine  in  increasing  the  draught,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  "Nicholson's 
Journal"  (Sept.,  1805)  on  the  subject ;  and  Mr.  Nicholson  himself  proceeded  to  inves- 
tigate the  subject,  and  in  1806  he  took  out  a  patent  for  "steam-blasting  apparatus," 
applicable  to  fixed  engines,  which,  however,  does  not  seem  to  have  come  into  use. 
(See  ante,  p.  82.) 


172  NICHOLAS  WOOD'S  ACCOUNT.  [PART  H. 

within  it.  The  steam,  after  performing  its  office  within  the  cylin- 
der, is  thus  thrown  into  the  chimney,  and  the  power  with  which  it 
issues  will  be  proportionate  to  the  degree  of  elasticity ;  and  the  exit 
being  directed  upward,  accelerates  the  velocity  of  the  current  of  heat- 
ed air  accordingly.'1'1* 

And  again,  at  another  part  of  the  book,  he  says : 

"There  is  another  great  objection  urged  against  locomotives, 
which  is,  the  noise  that  the  steam  makes  in  escaping  into  the  chim- 
ney; this  objection  is  very  singular,  as  it  is  not  the  result  of  any 
inherent  form  in  the  organization  of  such  engines,  but  an  accidental 
circumstance.  When  the  engines  were  first  made,  the  steam  escaped 
into  the  atmosphere,  and  made  comparatively  little  noise ;  it  was 
found  difficult  then  to  produce  steam  in  sufficient  quantity  to  keep 
the  engine  constantly  working,  or  rather  to  obtain  an  adequate  ra- 
pidity of  current  in  the  chimney  to  give  sufficient  intensity  to  the 
fire.  To  effect  a  greater  rapidity,  or  to  increase  the  draught  of  the 
chimney,  Mr.  Stephenson  thought  that  by  causing  the  steam  to  escape 
into  the  chimney  through  a  pipe  with  its  end  turned  upward,  the  ve- 
locity of  the  current  would  be  accelerated,  and  such  was  the  effect; 
but,  in  remedying  one  evil,  another  has  been  produced,  which, 
though  objectionable  in  some  places,  was  not  considered  as  objec- 
tionable on  a  private  railroad.  The  tube  through  the  boiler  having 
been  increased,- there  is  now  no  longer  any  occasion  for  the  action 
of  the  steam  to  assist  the  motion  of  the  heated  air  in  the  chimney. 
The  steam  thrown  in  this  manner  into  the  chimney  acts  as  a  trum- 
pet, and  certainly  makes  a  very  disagreeable  noise.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, is  more  easy  to  remedy,  and  the  very  act  of  remedying  this 
defect  will  also  be  the  means  of  economizing  the  fuel."f 

Mr.  Wood  then  proceeds  to  show  how  the  noise  caused  by  the 
blast — how,  in  fact,  the  blast  itself,  might  be  effectually  prevented 
by  adopting  the  expedient  employed  in  the  Wylam  engine ;  which 
was,  to  send  the  exhaust  steam,  not  into  the  chimney  (where  alone 
the  blast  could  act  with  effect  by  stimulating  the  draught),  but 
into  a  steam-reservoir  provided  for  the  purpose.  His  words  are 
these : 

"  Nothing  more  is  wanted  to  destroy  the  noise  than  to  cause  the 

*  Nicholas  Wood,  "Practical  Treatise  on  Eailways,"  ed.  1825,  p.  147. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  292-3. 


CHAP.  V.]  THE  STEAM-BLAST.  173 

steam  to  expand  itself  into  a  reservoir,  and  then  allow  it  to  escape 
gradually  to  the  atmosphere  through  the  chimney.  Upon  the  Wylam 
railroad  the  noise  was  made  the  subject  of  complaint  by  a  neighbor- 
ing gentleman,  and  they  adopted  this  mode,  which  had  the  effect 
above  mentioned."* 

It  is  curious  to  find  that  Mr.  Nicholas  Wood  continued  to  ob- 
ject to  the  use  of  the  steam-blast  down  even  to  the  time  when 
the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway  Bill  was  before  Parlia- 
ment. In  his  evidence  before  the  Committee  on  that  Bill  in 
1825,  he  said :  "  Those  engines  [at  Killingworth]  puff  very  much, 
and  the  object  is  to  get  an  increased  draught  in  the  chimney. 
Now  (by  enlarging  the  flue -tube  and  giving  it  a  double  turn 
through  the  boiler)  we  have  got  a  sufficiency  of  steam  without  it, 
and  I  have  no  doubt,  by  allowing  the  steam  to  exhaust  itself  in 
a  reservoir,  it  would  pass  quietly  into  the  chimney  without  that 
noise."  In  fact,  Mr.  Wood  was  still  in  favor  of  the  arrangement 
adopted  in  the  Wylam  engine,  by  which  the  steam-blast  had  been 
got  rid  of  altogether. 

If  these  statements,  made  in  Mr.  Wood's  book,  be  correct — and 
they  have  never  been  disputed — they  render  it  perfectly  clear  that 
George  Stephenson  invented  and  applied  the  steam-blast  for  the 
express  purpose  of  quickening  combustion  in  the  furnace  by  in- 
creasing the  draught  in  the  chimney.  Although  urged  by  Wood 
to  abandon  the  blast,  Stephenson  continued  to  hold  by  it  as  one 
of  the  vital  powers  of  the  locomotive  engine.  It  is  quite  true  that 
in  the  early  engines,  with  only  a  double  flue  passing  through  the 
boiler,  run  as  they  were  at  low  speeds,  the  blast  was  of  compara- 
tively less  importance.  It  was  only  when  the  improved  passenger 
engine,  fitted  with  the  multi tubular  boiler,  was  required  to  be  run 
at  high  speeds  that  the  full  merits  of  the  blast  were  brought  out ; 
and  in  detecting  its  essential  uses  in  this  respect,  and  sharpening 

*  Nicholas  Wood,  "Practical  Treatise  on  Railways,"  ed.  1825,  p.  294.  These  pas- 
sages will  be  found  in  the  first  edition  of  Mr.  Wood's  work,  published  in  1825.  The 
subsequent  editions  do  not  contain  them.  A  few  years'  experience  wrought  great 
changes  of  opinion  on  many  points  connected  with  the  practical  working  of  railways, 
and  Mr.  Wood  altered  his  text  accordingly.  But  it  is  most  important  for  our  present 
purpose  to  note  that,  in  the  year  1825,  long  before  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line 
was  opened,  Mr.  Wood  should  have  so  clearly  described  the  steam-blast,  which  had 
been  in  regular  use  for  more  than  ten  years  in  all  Stephenson's  locomotives  employed 
in  the  working  of  the  Killingworth  railway. 


174 


COLLIERY  WHIMSEY. 


[PART  n. 


it  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  its  action,  the  sagacity  of  Timothy 
Hack  worth,  of  Darlington,  is  entitled  to  due  recognition. 


CHAP.  VI.]  ACCIDENTS  IN  MINES.  175 


CHAPTEK  VL 

INVENTION   OF   THE  "  GEOKDY5'    SAFETY-LAMP. 

EXPLOSIONS  of  fire-damp  were  unusually  frequent  in  the  coal- 
mines of  Northumberland  and  Durham  about  the  time  when 
George  Stephenson  was  engaged  in  the  construction  of  his  first 
locomotives.  These  explosions  were  often  attended  with  fearful 
loss  of  life  and  dreadful  suffering  to  the  work-people.  Killing- 
worth  Colliery  was  not  free  from  such  deplorable  calamities ;  and 
during  the  time  that  Stephenson  was  employed  as  brakesman  at 
the  West  Moor,  several  "  blasts"  took  place  in  the  pit,  by  which 
many  workmen  were  scorched  and  killed,  and  the  owners  of  the 
colliery  sustained  heavy  losses-.  One  of  the  most  serious  of  these 
accidents  occurred  in  1806,  not  long  after  he  had  been  appointed 
brakesman,  by  which  ten  persons  were  killed.  Stephenson  was 
near  the  pit  mouth  at  the  time,  and  the  circumsta*nces  connected 
with  the  explosion  made  a  deep  impression  on  his  mind,  as  ap- 
peal's from  the  graphic  account  which  he  gave  of  it  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Commons  on  accidents  in  mines,  some 
thirty  years  after  the  event. 

"  The  pit,"  said  he,  "  had  just  ceased  drawing  coals,  and  nearly 
all  the  men  had  got  out.  It  was  some  tune  in  the  afternoon,  a  lit- 
tle after  midday.  There  were  five  men  that  went  down  the  pit ; 
four  of  them  for  the  purpose  of  preparing  a  place  for  the  furnace. 
The  fifth  was  a  person  who  went  down  to  set  them  to  work.  I  sent 
this  man  down  «myself,  and  he  had  just  got  to  the  bottom  of  the 
shaft  about  two  or  three  minutes  when  the  explosion  took  place. 
I  had  left  the  mouth  of  the  pit,  and  had  gone  about  fifty  or  sixty 
yards  away,  when  I  heard  a  tremendous  noise,  looked  round,  and 
saw  the  discharge  come  out  of  the  pit  like  the  discharge  of  a  can- 
non. It  continued  to  blow,  I  think,  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  dis- 
charging every  thing  that  had  come  into  the  current.  Wood  came 
up,  stones  came  up,  and  trusses  of  hay  that  went  up  into  the  air 
like  balloons.  Those  trusses  had  been  sent  down  during  the  day, 
and  I  think  they  had  in  some  measure  injured  the  ventilation  of  the 


1Y6  MINE  EXPLOSION  A  T  KILLING  WORTH.          [PART  II. 

mine.  The  ground  all  round  the  top  of  the  pit  was  in  a  trembling 
state.  I  went  as  near  as  I  durst  go ;  every  thing  appeared  crack- 
ing and  rending  about  me.  Part  of  the  brattice,  which  was  very 
strong,  was  blown  away  at  the  bottom  of  the  pits.  Very  large 
pumps  were  lifted  from  their  places,  so  that  the  engine  could  not 
work.  The  pit  was  divided  into  four  by  partitions ;  it  was  a  large 
pit,  fourteen  feet  in  diameter,  and  partitions  were  put  down  at  right 
angles,  which  made  four  compartments.  The  explosion  took  place 
in  one  of  those  four  quarters,  but  it  broke  through  into  all  the  oth- 
ers at  the  bottom,  and  the  brattice  or  partitions  were  set  on  fire  at 
the  first  explosion. 

"  Nobody  durst  go  near  the  shafts  for  some  time,  for  fear  of  an- 
other explosion  taking  place.  At  last  we  considered  it  necessary 
to  run  the  rope  backward  and  forward,  and  give  the  miners,  if  there 
were  any  at  the  bottom  of  the  shaft,  an  opportunity  of  catching  the 
rope  as  it  came  to  the  bottom.  Several  men  were  safely  got  up  in 
this  way ;  one  man,  who  had  got  hold  of  the  rope,  was  being  drawn 
up,  when  a  farther  explosion  took  place  while  he  was  still  in  the 
shaft,  and  the  increased  current  which  came  about  him  projected 
him  as  it  were  up  the  shaft ;  yet  he  was  landed  without  injury :  it 

was  a  singular  case The  pit  continued  to  blast  every  two  or 

three  hours  for  about  two  days.  It  appears  that  the  coal  had  taken 
fire,  and  as  soon  as  the  carbureted  hydrogen  gas  collected  in  suffi' 
cient  quantity  to  reach  the  part  where  it  was  burning,  it  ignited 
again ;  but  none  of  the  explosions  were  equal  to  the  first,  on  ac- 
count of  many  parts  of  the  mine  having  become  filled  with  azotic 
gas,  or  the  after-damp  of  the  mine.  All  the  ditches  in  the  country- 
side were  stopped  to  get  water  to  pour  into  the  pit.  We  had  fire- 
engines  brought  from  Newcastle,  and  the  water  was  poured  in  till 
it  came  above  the  fire,  and  then  it  was  extinguished.  The  loss  to 
the  owners  of  the  colliery  by  this  accident  must  have  been  about 
£20,000."* 

Another  explosion  took  place  in  the  same  pit  in  1809,  by  which 
twelve  persons  lost  their  lives.  The  blast  did  not  reach  the  shaft 
as  in  the  former  case,  the  unfortunate  persons  in  the  pit  having 
been  suffocated  by  the  after-damp.  More  calamitous  still  were 
the  explosions  which  took  place  in  the  neighboring  collieries,  one 
of  the  worst  being  that  of  1812,  in  the  Felling  Pit  near  Gateshead, 
a  mine  belonging  to  Mr.  Brandling,  by  which  no  fewer  than  nine- 

*  Evidence  given  by  George  Stephenson  before  the  Select  Committee  on  Accidents 
in  Mines,  26th  June,  1835. 


CHAP.  VI.] 


DANGERS  OF  THE  COAL-MINES. 


177 


ty  men  and  boys  were  suffocated  or  burnt  to  death ;  and  a  similar 
accident  occurred  in  the  same  pit  in  the  year  following,  by  which 
twenty-two  men  and  boys  perished. 


THE  PIT  HEAD,  WEST  MOOR.    [By  R.  P.  Leitch.] 

It  was  natural  that  Stephenson  should  devote  his  attention  to 
the  causes  of  these  deplorable  accidents,  and  to  the  means  by 
which  they  might,  if  possible,  be  prevented.  His  daily  occupation 
led  him  to  think  much  and  deeply  on  the  subject.  As  engine- 
wright  of  a  colliery  so  extensive  as  that  of  Killingworth,  where 
there  were  nearly  160  miles  of  gallery  excavation,  in  which  he 
personally  superintended  the  working  of  inclined  planes,  along 
which  the  coals  were  sent  to  the  pit  entrance,  he  was  necessarily 
very  often  under  ground,  and  brought  face  to  face  with  the  dan- 
gers of  fire-damp.  From  fissures  in  the  roofs  of  the  galleries  car- 
bureted hydrogen  gas  was  constantly  flowing ;  and  in  some  of  the 
more  dangerous  places  it  might  be  heard  escaping  from  the  crev- 
ices of  the  coal  with  a  hissing  noise.  Ventilation,  firing,  and  all 
conceivable  modes  of  drawing  out  the  foul  air  had  been  tried, 
while  the  more  dangerous  parts  of  the  galleries  were  built  up. 
Still  the  danger  could  not  be  wholly  prevented.  The  miners  must 
necessarily  guide  their  steps  through  the  extensive  underground 
ways  with  lighted  lamps  or  candles,  the  naked  flame  of  which, 
coming  in  contact  with  the  inflammable  air,  daily  exposed  them 
and  their  fellow-workers  in  the  pit  to  the  risk  of  death  in  one  of 
its  most  dreadful  forms. 

M 


178  THE  MINE  ON  FIRE.  [PART  H. 

One  day  in  the  year  1814,  a  workman  hurried  into  Stephen- 
son's  cottage  with  the  startling  information  that  the  deepest  main 
of  the  colliery  was  on  fire !  He  immediately  hastened  to  the  pit- 
head, about  a  hundred  yards  off,  whither  the  women  and  children 
of  the  colliery  were  running,  with  wildness  and  terror  depicted 
in  every  face.  In  a  commanding  voice,  Stephenson  ordered  the 
engine-man  to  lower  him  down  the  shaft  in  the  corve.  There 
was  danger,  it  might  be  death,  before  him,  but  he  must  go. 

He  was  soon  at  the  bottom,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  men,  who 
were  paralyzed  at  the  danger  which  threatened  the  lives  of  all  in 
the  pit.  Leaping  from  the  corve  on  its  touching  the  ground,  he 
called  out,  "Are  there  six  men  among  you  who  have  the  courage 
to  follow  me  ?  If  so,  come,  and  \ve  will  put  the  fire  out."  The 
Killingworth  pitmen  had  the  most  perfect  confidence  in  their  en- 
gine-wright,  and  they  readily  volunteered  to  follow  him.  Silence 
succeeded  the  frantic  tumult  of  the  previous  minute,  and  the  men 
set  to  work  with  a  will.  In  every  mine,  bricks,  mortar,  and  tools 
enough  are  at  hand,  and  by  Stephenson's  direction  the  materials 
were  forthwith  carried  to  the  required  spot,  where,  in  a  very 
short  time,  a  wall  was  raised  at  the  entrance  to  the  main,  he  him- 
self taking  the  most  active  part  in  the  work.  The  atmospheric 
air  was  by  this  means  excluded,  the  fire  was  extinguished,  most 
of  the  people  in  the  pit  were  saved  from  death,  and  the  mine  was 
preserved. 

This  anecdote  of  George  Stephenson  was  related  to  the  writer, 
near  the  pit-mouth,  by  one  of  the  men,  Kit  Heppel,  who  had  been 
present,  and  helped  to  build  up  the  brick  wall  by  which  the  fire 
was  stayed,  though  several  of  the  workmen  were  suffocated. 
Heppel  relates  that,  when  down  the  pit  some  days  after,  seeking 
out  the  dead  bodies,  the  cause  of  the  accident  was  the  subject  of 
some  conversation  between  himself  and  Stephenson,  and  Heppel 
then  asked  him, "  Can  nothing  be  done  to  prevent  such  awful 
occurrences?"  Stephenson  replied  that  he  thought  something 
might  be  done.  "  Then,"  said  Heppel, "  the  sooner  you  begin  the 
better,  for  the  price  of  coal-mining  now  is  pitmen's  lives" 

Fifty  years  since,  many  of  the  best  pits  were  so  full  of  the  in- 
flammable gas  given  forth  by  the  coal  that  they  could  not  be 
worked  without  the  greatest  danger,  and  for  this  reason  some 
were  altogether  abandoned.  The  rudest  possible  means  were 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE  PROBLEM  OF  A  SAFETY-LAMP.  179 

adopted  of  producing  light  sufficient  to  enable  the  pitmen  to 
•work  by.  The  phosphorescence  of  decayed  fish-skins  was  tried ; 
but  this,  though  safe,  was  very  inefficient.  The  most  common 
method  employed  was  what  was  called  a  steel  mill,  the  notched 
wheel  of  which,  being  made  to  revolve  against  a  flint,  struck  a 
succession  of  sparks,  which  scarcely  served  to  do  more  than  make 
the  darkness  visible.  A  boy  carried  the  apparatus,  working  the 
wheel ;  and  by  the  imperfect  light  thus  given  forth  the  miner 
plied  his  dangerous  trade.  Candles  were  only  used  in  those  parts 
of  the  pit  where  gas  was  not  abundant.  Under  this  rude  system 
not  more  than  one  third  of  the  coal  could  be  worked,  while  two 
thirds  were  left. 

What  the  workmen,  not  less  than  the  coal-owners,  eagerly  de- 
sired was  a  lamp  that  should  give  forth  sufficient  light,  without 
communicating  flame  to  the  inflammable  gas  which  accumulated 
in  certain  parts  of  the  pit.  Something  had  already  been  done 
toward  the  invention  of  such  a  lamp  by  Dr.  Clanny,  of  Sunder- 
land,  who,  in  1813,  contrived  an  apparatus  to  which  he  gave  air 
from  the  mine  through  water,  by  means  of  bellows.  This  lamp 
went  out  of  itself  in  inflammable  gas.  It  was  found,  however,  too 
unwieldy  to  be  used  by  the  miners  for  the  purposes  of  their  work, 
and  did  not  come  into  general  use.  A  committee  of  gentlemen 
interested  in  coal-mining  was  formed  to  investigate  the  causes  of 
the  explosions,  and  to  devise,  if  possible,  some  means  of  prevent- 
ing them.  At  the  invitation  of  that  committee,  Sir  Humphry 
Davy,  then  in  the  full  zenith  of  his  reputation,  was  requested  to 
turn  his  attention  to  the  subject.  He  accordingly  visited  the  col- 
lieries near  Newcastle  on  the  24th  of  August,  1815,  and  at  the 
close  of  that  year,  on  the  9th  of  November,  1815,  he  read  before 
the  Royal  Society  of  London  his  celebrated  paper  "  On  the  Fire- 
damp of  Coal  Mines,  and  on  Methods  of  Lighting  the  Mine  so  as 
to  prevent  its  Explosion." 

But  a  humbler  though  not  less  diligent  and  original  thinker 
had  been  at  work  before  him,  and  had  already  practically  solved 
the  problem  of  the  Safety-lamp.  Stephenson  was,  of  cou<|e,  well 
aware  of  the  desire  which  prevailed  in  the  colliery  districts  for 
the  invention  of  a  lamp  which  should  give  light  enough  for  the 
miners  to  work  by  without  exploding  the  fire-damp,  and  the  pain- 
ful incidents  above  described  only  served  to  quicken  his  eager- 
ness to  master  the  difficulty. 


180     STEPHENSON'S  FIRST  IDEA  OF  A  SAFETY-LAMP.   [PART  II. 

For  several  years  he  had  been  engaged,  in  his  own  rude  way, 
in  making  experiments  with  the  fire-damp  in  the  Killingworth 
mine.  The  pitmen  used  to  expostulate  with  him  on  these  occa- 
sions, believing  the  experiments  to  be  fraught  with  danger.  One 
of  the  sinkers,  called  M'Crie,  observing  him  holding  up  lighted 
candles  to  the  windward  of  the  "  blower"  or  fissure  from  which 
the  inflammable  gas  escaped,  entreated  him  to  desist ;  but  Ste- 
phenson's  answer  was,  that  "  he  was  busy  with  a  plan  by  which 
he  hoped  to  make  his  experiments  useful  for  preserving  men's 
lives."  On  these  occasions  the  miners  usually  got  out  of  the  way 
before  he  lit  the  gas. 

In  1815,  although  he  was  very  much  occupied  with  the  busi- 
ness of  the  collieries  and  the  improvement  of  his  locomotive  en- 
gine, he  was  also  busily  engaged  in  making  experiments  upon 
the  inflammable  gas  in  the  Killingworth  Pit.  As  he  himself  aft- 
erward related  to  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  which 
sat  on  the  subject  of  Accidents  in  Mines  in  1835,  he  imagined 
that  if  he  could  construct  a  lamp  with  a  chimney  so  arranged  as 
to  cause  a  strong  current,  it  would  not  fire  at  the  top  of  the  chim- 
ney, as  the  burnt  air  would  ascend  with  such  a  velocity  as  to  pre- 
vent the  inflammable  air  of  the  pit  from  descending  toward  the 
flame ;  and  such  a  lamp,  he  thought,  might  be  taken  into  a  dan- 
gerous atmosphere  without  risk  of  exploding. 

Such  was  Stephenson's  theory,  when  he  proceeded  to  embody 
his  idea  of  a  miner's  safety-lamp  in  a  practical  form.  In  the 
month  of  August,  1815,  he  requested  his  friend  Nicholas  Wood, 
the  head  viewer,  to  prepare  a  drawing  of  a  lamp  according  to  the 
description  which  he  gave  him.  After  several  evenings'  careful 
deliberations,  the  drawing  was  prepared,  and  it  was  shown  to 
several  of  the  head  men  about  the  works.  "  My  first  lamp,"  said 
Stephenson,  describing  it  to  the  committee  above  referred  to, 
"  had  a  chimney  at  the  top  of  the  lamp,  and  a  tube  at  the  bottom 
to  admit  the  atmospheric  air,  or  fire-damp  and  air.  to  feed  the 
burner  or  combustion  of  the  lamp.  I  was  not  aware  of  the  pre- 
cise qi^itity  required  to  feed  the  combustion ;  but  to  know  what 
quantity  was  necessary,  I  had  a  slide  at  the  bottom  of  the  tube 
in  my  first  lamp,  to  admit  such  a  quantity  of  air  as  might  event- 
ually be  found  necessary  to  keep  up  the  combustion." 

Accompanied  by  his  friend  Wood,  Stephenson  went  into  New- 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE  FIRST  SAFETY-LAMP  MADE.  181 

castle,  and  ordered  a  lamp  to  be  made  according  to  his  plan  by 
the  Messrs.  Hogg,  tinmen,  at  the  head  of  the  Side — a  well-known 
street  in  Newcastle.  At  the  same  time,  he  ordered  a  glass  to  be 
made  for  the  lamp  at  the  Northumberland  Glass-house  in  the 
same  town.  This  lamp  was  received  from  the  makers  on  the 
21st  of  October,  and  was  taken  to  Killingworth  for  the  purpose 
of  immediate  experiment 

"  I  remember  that  evening  as  distinctly  as  if  it  had  been  but 
yesterday,"  said  Robert  Stephenson,  describing  the  circumstances 
to  the  author  in  1857.  "  Moodie  came  to  our  cottage  about  dusk, 
and  asked  '  if  father  had  got  back  with  the  lamp.'  '  No.'  '  Then 
I'll  wait  till  he  comes,'  said  Moodie ;  '  he  can't  be  long  now.'  In 
aboiTt  half  an  hour,  in  came  my  father,  his  face  all  radiant.  He 
had  the  lamp  with  him !  It  was  at  once  uncovered  and  shown 
to  Moodie.  Then  it  was  filled  with  oil,  trimmed,  and  lighted. 
All  was  ready,  only  the  head  viewer  hadn't  arrived.  '  Eun  over 
to  Benton  for  Nichol,  Robert,'  said  my  father  to  me,  *  and  ask 
him  to  come  directly;  say  we're  going  down  the  pit  to  try  the 
lamp.'  By  this  time  it  was  quite -dark,  and  off  I  ran  to  bring 
Nicholas  Wood.  His  house  was  at  Benton,  about  a  mile  off. 
There  was  a  short  cut  through  Benton  Church-yard,  but  just  as 
I  was  about  to  pass  the  wicket  I  saw  what  I  thought  was  a  white 
figure  moving  about  among  the  grave-stones.  I  took  it  for  a 
ghost !  My  heart  fluttered,  and  I  was  in  a  great  fright,  but  to 
Nichol's  house  I  must  get,  so  I  made  the  circuit  of  the  church- 
yard ;  and  when  I -got  round  to  the  other  side  I  looked,  and,  lo ! 
the  figure  was  still  there.  But  what  do  you  think  it  was  ?  Only 
the  grave-digger,  plying  his  work  at  that  late  hour  by  the  light 
of  his  lantern  set  upon  one  of  the  grave-stones !  I  found  Wood 
at  home,  and  in  a  few  minutes  he  was  mounted  and  off  to  my  fa- 
ther's. When  I  got  home  I  was  told  they  had  just  left — it  was 
then  about  eleven — and  gone  down  the  shaft  to  try  the  lamp  in 
one  of  the  most  dangerous  parts  of  the  mine." 

Arrived  at  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  with  the  lamp,  the  party 
directed  their  steps  toward  one  of  the  foulest  galleries  in  the  pit, 
where  the  explosive  gas  was  issuing  through  a  blower  in  the  roof 
of  the  mine  with  a  loud  hissing  noisfe.  By  erecting  some  deal 
boarding  round  that  part  of  the  gallery  into  which  the  gas  was 
escaping,  the  air  was  thus  made  more  foul  for  the  purpose  of  the 


182  THE  "  GEORDY"  SAFETY-LAMP  TRIED.          [PAST  IL 

experiment.  After  waiting  about  an  hour,  Moodie,  whose  prac- 
tical experience  of  fire-damp  in  pits  was  greater  than  that  of 
either  Stephenson  or  Wood,  was  requested  to  go  into  the  place 
which  had  thus  been  made  foul ;  and,  having  done  so,  he  re- 
turned, and  told  them  that  the  smell  of  the  air  was  such  that  if 
a  lighted  candle  were  now  introduced  an  explosion  must  inevita- 
bly take  place.  He  cautioned  Stephenson  as  to  the  danger  both 
to  themselves  and  to  the  pit  if  the  gas  took  fire ;  but  Stephenson 
declared  his  confidence  in  the  safety  of  liis  lamp,  and,  having  lit 
the  wick,  he  boldly  proceeded  with  it  toward  the  explosive  air. 
The  others,  more  timid  and  doubtful,  hung  back  when  they  came 
within  hearing  of  the  blower ;  and,  apprehensive  of  the  danger, 
they  retired  into  a  safe  place,  out  of  sight  of  the  lamp,  which 
gradually  disappeared  with  its  bearer  in  the  recesses  of  the  mine. 
It  was  a  critical  moment,  and  the  danger  was  such  as  would  have 
tried  the  stoutest  heart.  Stephenson,  advancing  alone,  with  his 
yet  untried  lamp,  in  the  depths  of  those  underground  workings, 
calmly  venturing  his  life  in  the  determination  to  discover  a  mode 
by  which  the  lives  of  many  might  be  saved,  and  death  disarmed 
in  these  fatal  caverns,  presented  an  example  of  intrepid  nerve 
and  manly  courage  more  noble  even  than  that  which,  in  the  ex- 
citement of  battle  and  the  collective  impetuosity  of  a  charge,  car- 
ries a  man  up  to  the  cannon's  mouth. 

Advancing  to  the  place  of  danger,  and  entering  within  the 
fouled  air,  his  lighted  lamp  in  hand,  Stephenson  held  it  firmly 
out,  in  the  full  current  of  the  blower,  and  within  a  few  inches  of 
its  mouth.  Thus  exposed,  the  flame  of  the  lamp  at  first  increased, 
then  flickered,  and  then  went  out ;  but  there  was  no  explosion  of 
the  gas.  Returning  to  his  companions,  who  were  still  at  a  dis- 
tance, he  told  them  what  had  occurred.  Having  now  acquired 
somewhat  more  confidence,  they  advanced  with  him  to  a  point 
from  which  they  could  observe  the  experiment  repeated,  but  still 
at  a  safe  distance.  They  saw  that  when  the  lighted  lamp  was 
held  within  the  explosive  mixture,  there  was  a  great  flame ;  the 
lamp  was  almost  full  of  fire ;  and  then  it  seemed  to  be  smothered 
out  Again  returning  to  his  companions,  he  relighted  the  lamp, 
and  repeated  the  experiment.  This  was  done  several  times,  with 
the  same  result.  At  length  Wood  and  Moodie  ventured  to  ad- 
vance close  to  the  fouled  part  of  the  pit ;  and,  in  making  some 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE  LAMP  IMPROVED.  183 

of  the  later  trials,  Mr.  Wood  himself  held  up  the  lighted  lamp  to 
tl^e  blower.*  Such  was  the  result  of  the  first  experiments  with 
the  first  practical  Miner's  Safety-lamp,  and  such  was  the  daring 
resolution  of  its  inventor  in  testing  its  qualities. 

Before  leaving  the  pit,  Stephenson  expressed  his  opinion  that, 
by  an  alteration  of  the  lamp  which  he  contemplated,  he  could 
make  it  burn  better.  This  was  by  a  change  in  the  slide  through 
which  the  air  was  admitted  into  the  lower  part  of  the  lamp,  un- 
der the  flame.  After  making  some  experiments  on  the  air  col- 
lected at  the  blower,  by  means  of  bladders  which  were  mounted 
with  tubes  of  various  diameters,  he  satisfied  himself  that,  when 
the  tube  was  reduced  to  a  certain  diameter,  the  explosion  would 
not  pass  through ;  and  he  fashioned  his  slide  accordingly,  reduc- 
ing the  diameter  of  the  tube  until  he  conceived  it  was  quite  safe. 
In  about  a  fortnight  the  experiments  were  repeated  in  the  pit,  in 
a  place  purposely  made  foul  as  before.  On  this  occasion  a  larger 
number  of  persons  ventured  to  witness  the  experiments,  which 
again  proved  successful.  The  lamp  was  not  yet,  however,  so  effi- 
cient as  the  inventor  desired.  It  required,  he  observed,  to  be 

*  The  accuracy  of  the  above  statement  having  been  called  in  question,  it  is  proper 
to  state  that  the  facts  as  set  forth  were  verbally  communicated  to  the  author  in  the 
first  place  by  Robert  Stephenson,  to  whom  the  chapter  was  afterward  read  in  MS.  in 
the  presence  of  Mr.  Sopwith,F.R.S.,  and  received  his  entire  approval.  But  at  the 
time  at  which  Mr.  Stephenson  communicated  the  verbal  information,  he  also  handed 
a  little  book  with  his  name  written  in  it,  still  in  the. author's  possession,  saying,  "Read 
that ;  you  will  find  it  all  there. "  This  little  book  contains,  among  other  things,  a 
pamphlet,  entitled  "Report  on  the  Claims  of  Mr.  George  Stephenson  relative  to  the 
Invention  of  his  Safety-lamp.  By  the  Committee  appointed  at  a  Meeting  holden  in 
Newcastle,  on  the  1st  of  November,  1817.  With  an  Appendix  containing  the  Evi- 
dence." Among  the  witnesses  examined  were  George  Stephenson,  Nicholas  Wood, 
and  John  Moodie,  and  their  evidence  is  given  in  the  pamphlet.  Stephenson  said  that 
he  tried  the  first  lamp  "in  a  part  of  the  mine  where  the  air  was  highly  explosive. 
Nicholas  Wood  and  John  Moodie  were  his  companions  when  the  trial  was  made. 
They  became  frightened  when  they  came  within  hearing  of  the  blower,  and  would  not 
go  any  farther.  Mr.  Stephenson  went  alone  with  the  lamp  to  the  mouth  of  the  blow- 
er," etc.  This  evidence  was  confirmed  by  John  Moodie,  who  said  the  air  of  the  place 
where  the  experiment  was  about  to  be  tried  was  such,  that,  if  a  lighted  candle  had 
been  introduced,  an  explosion  would  have  taken  place  that  would  have  been  "  ex- 
tremely dangerous."  "Told  Stephenson  it  was  foul,  and  hinted  at  the  danger ;  nev- 
ertheless, Stephenson  would  try  the  lamp,  confiding  in  its  safety.  Stephenson  took 
the  lamp  and  went  with  it  into  the  place  in  which  Moodie  had  been,  and  Moodie  and 
Wood,  apprehensive  of  the  danger,  retired  to  a  greater  distance, "  etc.  The  accuracy 
of  the  other  statements  made  in  the  text  relative  to  the  invention  of  the  safety-lamp 
is  confirmed  by  the  same  publication. 


184  EXPERIMENTS  WITH  EXPLOSIVE  GAS.         [PART  H. 

kept  very  steady  when  burning  in  the  inflammable  gas,  otherwise 
it  was  liable  to  go  out,  in  consequence,  as  he  imagined,  of  tfce 
contact  of  the  burnt  air  (as  he  then  called  it),  or  azotic  gas,  which 
lodged  round  the  exterior  of  the  flame.  If  the  lamp  was  moved 
backward  and  forward,  the  azote  came  in  contact  with  the  flame 
and  extinguished  it.  "  It  struck  me,"  said  he, "  that  if  I  put  more 
tubes  in,  I  should  discharge  the  poisonous  matter  that  hung  round 
the  flame  by  admitting  the  air  to  its  exterior  part." 

Although  he  had  then  no  access  to  scientific  works,  nor  in- 
tercourse with  scientific  men,  nor  any  thing  that  could  assist 
him  in  his  inquiries  on  the  subject  besides  his  own  indefati- 
gable spirit  of  inquiry,  Stephenson  contrived  a  rude  apparatus, 
by  means  of  which  he  proceeded  to  test  the  explosive  properties 
of  the  gas  and  the  velocity  of  current  (for  this  was  the  direction 
of  his  inquiries)  required  to  permit  the  explosion  to  pass  through 
tubes  of  different  diameters.  In  making  these  experiments  in 
his  cottage  at  the  West  Moor,  Nicholas  Wood  and  George's  son 
Robert  usually  acted  as  his  assistants,  and  sometimes  the  gentle- 
men of  the  neighborhood — among  others,  William  Brandling 
and  Matthew  Bell,  who  were  interested  in  coal-mining — attended 
as  spectators.  One  who  was  present  on  such  an  occasion  remem- 
bers that,  when  an  experiment  was  about  to  be  performed,  and 
all  was  ready,  George  called  to  Mr.  Wood,  who  worked  the  stop- 
cocks of  the  gasometer, ,"  Wise  on  [turn  on]  the  hydrogen, 
Mchol !" 

These  experiments  were  not  performed  without  risk,  for  on 
one  occasion  the  experimenting  party  had  nearly  blown  off  the 
roof  of  the  cottage.  One  of  these  "  blows  up"  was  described  by 
Stephenson  himself  before  the  Committee  on  Accidents  in  Coal 
Mines  in  1835 : 

"  I  made  several  experiments,"  said  he,  "  as  to  the  velocity  re- 
quired in  tubes  of  different  diameters,  to  prevent  explosion  from 
fire-damp.  We  made  the  mixture  in  all  proportions  of  light  car- 
bureted hydrogen  with  atmospheric  air  in  the  receiver,  and  we  • 
found  by  the  experiments  that  when  a  current  of  the  most  explo- 
sive mixture  that  we  could  make  was  forced  up  a  tube  four  tenths 
of  an  inch  in  diameter,  the  necessary  current  was  nine  inches  in  a 
second  to  prevent  its  coming  down  that  tube.  These  experiments 
were  repeated  several  times.  We  had  two  or  three  blows  up  in 


CHAP.  VI]  A  SAD  MISHAP.— EXPERIMENTS.  185 

making  the  experiments,  by  the  flame  getting  down  into  the  re- 
ceiver, though  we  had  a  piece  of  very  fine  wire-gauze  put  at  the 
bottom  of  the  pipe,  between  the  receiver  and  the  pipe  through 
which  we  were  forcing  the  current.  In  one  of  these  experiments 
I  was  watching  the  flame  in  the  tube,  my  son  was  taking  the  vibra- 
tions of  the  pendulum  of  the  clock,  and  Mr.  Wood  was  attending 
to  give  me  the  column  of  water  as  I  called  for  it,  to  keep  the  cur- 
rent up  to  a  certain  point.  As  I  saw  the  flame  descending  in  the 
tube  I  called  for  more  water,  and  Wood  unfortunately  turned  the 
cock  the  wrong  way ;  the  current  ceased,  the  flame  went  down  the 
tube,  and  all  our  implements  were  blown  to  pieces,  which  at  the 
time  we  were  not  very  well  able  to  replace." 

The  explosion  of  this  glass  receiver,  which  had  been  borrowed 
from  the  stores  of  the  Philosophical  Society  at  Newcastle  for  the 
purpose  of  making  the  experiments,  caused  the  greatest  possible 
dismay  among  the  party,  and  they  dreaded  to  inform  Mr.  Turner, 
the  secretary,*  of  the  calamity  which  had  occurred.  Fortunate- 
ly, none  of  the  experimenters  were  injured  by  the  accident. 

Stephenson  followed  up  these  experiments  by  others  of  a  simi- 
lar kind,  with  the  view  of  ascertaining  whether  ordinary  flame 
would  pass  through  tubes  of  a  small  diameter,  and  with  this  ob- 
ject he  filed  off  the  barrels  of  several  small  keys.  Placing  these 
together,  he  held  them  perpendicularly  over  a  strong  flame,  and 
ascertained  that  it  did  not  pass  upward.  This  was  a  farther 
proof  to  him  of  the  soundness  of  the  principle  on  which  he  had 
been  proceeding. 

In  order  to  correct  the  defect  of  his  first  lamp,  he  accordingly 
proceeded  to  alter  it  so  as  to  admit  the  air  to  the  flame  by  several 
tubes  of  reduced  diameter  instead  of  by  a  single  tube.  He  in- 

*  The  early  connection  of  Robert  with  the  Philosophical  and  Literary  Society  of 
Newcastle  had  brought  him  into  communication  with  the  Rev.  William  Turner,  one 
of  the  secretaries  of  the  institution.  That  gentleman  was  always  ready  to  assist  the 
inquirer  after  knowledge,  and  took  an  early  interest  in  the  studious  youth  from  Kil- 
lingworth,  with  whose  father  he  also  became  acquainted.  Mr.  Turner  cheerfully 
helped  them  in  their  joint  inquiries,  and  excited  while  he  endeavored  to  satisfy  their 
thirst  for  scientific  information.  Toward  the  close  of  his  life  Mr.  Stephenson  often 
spoke  of  the  gratitude  and  esteem  he  felt  toward  his  revered  instructor.  "Mr. 
Turner,"  he  said,  "was  always  ready  to  assist  me  with  books,  with  instruments,  and 
with  counsel,  gratuitously  and  cheerfully.  He  gave  me  the  most  valuable  assistance 
and  instruction,  and  to  my  dying  day  I  can  never  forget  the  obligations  which  I  owe 
to  my  venerable  friend." 


SECOND  AND  THIRD  LAMPS. 


f  erred  that  a  sufficient  quantity  of  air  would  thus  be  introduced 
into  the  lamp  for  the  purposes  of  combustion,  while  the  small- 
ness  of  the  apertures  would  still  prevent  the  explosion  passing 
downward,  at  the  same  time  that  the  "  burnt  air"  (the  cause,  in 
his  opinion,  of  the  lamp  going  out)  would  be  more  effectually 
dislodged.  The  requisite  alterations  were  made  in  the  lamp  by 
Mr.  Matthews,  a  tinman  in  Newcastle,  and  it  was  so  altered  that 
the  air  was  admitted  by  three  small  tubes  inserted  in  the  bot- 
tom, the  openings  of  which  were  placed  on  the  outside  of  the 
burner,  instead  of  having  (as  in  the  original  lamp)  the  one  tube 
opening  directly  under  the  flame. 

This  second  or  altered  lamp  was  tried  in  the  Killingworth  Pit 
on  titie  4th  of  November,  and  was  found  to  burn  better  than  the 
first  lamp,  and  to  be  perfectly  safe.  But,  as  it  did  not  yet  come 
up  entirely  to  the  inventor's  expectations,  he  proceeded  to  contrive 
a  third  lamp,  in  which  he  proposed  to  surround  the  oil  vessel  with 
a  number  of  capillary  tubes.  Then  it  struck  him  that  if  he  cut 
off  the  middle  of  the  tubes,  or  made  holes  in  metal  plates,  placed 
at  a  distance  from  each  other  equal  to  the  length  of  the  tubes, 
the  air  would  get  in  better,  and  the  effect  in  preventing  the  com- 
munication of  explosion  would  be  the  same. 

He  was  encouraged  to  persevere  in  the  completion  of  his  safe- 
ty-lamp by  the  occurrence  of  several  fatal  accidents  about  this 
time  in  the  Killingworth  Pit.  On  the  9th  of  November  a  boy 
was  killed  by  a  blast  in  the  A  pit,  at  the  very  place  where  Ste- 
phenson  had  made  the  experiments  with  his  first  lamp  ;  and,  when 
told  of  the  accident,  he  observed  that  if  the  boy  had  been  provided 
with  his  lamp,  his  life  would  have  been  saved.  On  the  20th  of 
November  he  went  over  to  Newcastle  to  order  his  third  lamp  from 
Mr.  Watson,  a  plumber  in  that  town.  Mr.  Watson  referred  him 
to  his  clerk,  Henry  Smith,  whom  Stephenson  invited  to  join  him 
at  a  neighboring  public  house,  where  they  might  quietly  talk  over 
the  matter,  and  finally  settle  the  plan  of  the  new  lamp.  They 
adjourned  to  the  "  Newcastle  Arms,"  near  the  present  High-Level 
Bridge,  where  they  had  some  ale,  and  a  design  of  -the  lamp  was 
drawn  in  pencil  upon  a  half  -sheet  of  foolscap,  with  a  rough  spe- 
cification subjoined.  The  sketch,  when  shown  to  us  by  Eobert 
Stephenson  some  years  since,  still  bore  the  marks  of  the  ale.  It 
was  a  very  rude  design,  but  sufficient  to  work  from.  It  was  im- 


CHAP.  VI.]  INVENTION  OF  THE  "GEORDY"  SAFETY-LAMP.     187 


mediately  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  workmen,  finished  in  the 
course  of  a  few  days,  and  experimentally  tested  in  the  Killing- 
worth  Pit  like  the  previous  lamps  on  the  30th  of  November,  by 


DAVT'B  SAFETY-LAMP. 


BTEPIIENSON'B  SAFETY-LAMP. 


which  date  neither  Stephenson  nor  Wood  had  heard  of  Sir  Hum- 
phry Davy's  experiments,  nor  of  the  lamp  which  that  gentleman 
proposed  to  construct. 

An  angry  controversy  afterward  took  place  as  to  the  respective 
merits  of  George  Stephenson  and  Sir  Humphry  Davy  in  respect 
of  the  invention  of  the  Safety-lamp.  A  committee  was  formed 
on  both  sides,  and  the  facts  were  stated  in  various  ways.  It  is 
perfectly  clear,  however,  that  Stephenson  had  ascertained  the  fact 
that  flame  will  not  pass  through  tubes  of  a  certain  diameter — the 
principle  on  which  the  safety-lamp  is  constructed — before  Sir 
Humphry  Davy  had  formed  any  definite  idea  on  the  subject,  or 
invented  the  model  lamp  afterward  exhibited  by  him  before  the 
Royal  Society..  Stephenson  had  actually  constructed  a  lamp  on 
such  a  principle,  and  proved  its  safety,  before  Sir  Humphry  had 
communicated  his  views  on  the  subject  to  any  person ;  and  by  the 
time  that  the  first  public  intimation  had  been  given  of  his  discov- 
ery, Stephenson's  second  lamp  had  been  constructed  and  tested  in 


188          THE  STEPHENSON  AND  DA  VY  CONTROVERSY.  [PART  II. 

like  manner  in  the  Killingworth  Pit.  The  first  was  tried  on  the 
21st  of  October,  1815 ;  the  second  was  tried  on  the  4th  of  Novem- 
ber; but  it  was  not  until  the  9th  of  November  that  Sir  Humphry 
Davy  presented  his  first  lamp  to  the  public.  And  by  the  30th  of 
the  same  month,  as  we  have  seen,  Stephenson  had  constructed  and 
tested  his  third  safety-lamp.  ^  .  .. 

Stephenson's  theory  of  the  "  burnt  air"  and  the  "  draught"  was 
no  doubt  wrong,  but  his  lamp  was  right,  and  that  was  the  great 
fact  which  mainly  concerned  him.  Torricelli  did  not  know  the 
rationale  of  his  tube,  nor  Otto  von  Guericke  that  of  his  air-pump ; 
yet  no  one  thinks  of  denying  them  the  merit  of  their  inventions 
on  that  account.  The  discoveries  of  Yolta  and  Galvani  were  in 
like  manner  independent  of  theory ;  the  greatest  discoveries  con- 
sisting in  bringing  to  light  certain  grand  facts,  on  which  theories 
are  afterward  framed.  Our  inventor  had  been  pursuing  the  Ba- 
conian method,  though  he  did  not  think  of  that ;  his  sole  object 
being  to  invent  a  safe  lamp,  which  he  knew  could  only  be  done 
through  the  process  of  repeated  experiment.  Hence  his  numer- 
ous experiments  on  the  fire-damp  at  the  blowers  in  the  mine,  as 
well  as  on  carbureted  hydrogen  gas  in  his  cottage  by  means  of 
the  apparatus  above  described.  By  experiment  he  distinctly  as- 
certained that  the  explosion  of  fire-damp  could  not  pass  through 
small  tubes ;  and  he  also  did  what  had  not  before  been  done  by 
any  inventor — he  constructed  a  lamp  on  this  principle,  and  re- 
peatedly proved  its  safety  at  the  risk  of  his  life.  At  the  same 
time,  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  was  to  Sir  Humphry  Davy  that  the 
merit  belonged  of  elucidating  the  true  law  on  which  the  safety- 
lamp  is  constructed. 

The  subject  of  this  important  invention  excited  so  much  inter- 
est in  the  northern  mining  districts,  and  Stephenson's  numerous 
friends  considered  his  lamp  so  completely  successful  —  having 
stood  the  test  of  repeated  experiments — that  they  urged  him  to 
bring  his  invention  before  the  Philosophical  and  Literary  Society 
of  Newcastle,  of  whose  apparatus  he  had  availed  himself  in  the 
course  of  his  experiments  on  fire-damp.  After  much  persuasion 
he  consented  to  do  so,  and  a  meeting  was  appointed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  receiving  his  explanations  on  the  evening  of  the  5th  of 
December,  1815.  Stephenson  was  at  that  time  so  diffident  in 
manner  and  unpracticed  in  speech,  that  he  took  with  him  his  friend 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE"GEORDY"  SAFETY-LAMP  EXHIBITED. 


189 


Nicholas  Wood  to  act  as  his  interpreter  and  expositor  on  the  oc- 
casion.    From  eighty  to  a  hundred  of  the  most  intelligent  mein- 


LJTEBABY  AN±»  MllLOSOMllCAi  I-NSTITUTE,  NEWCASTLE. 

bers  of  the  society  were  present  at  the  meeting,  when  Mr.  "Wood 
stood  forward  to  expound  the  principles  on  which  the  lamp  had 
been  formed,  and  to  describe  the  details  of  its  construction.  Sev- 
eral questions  were  put,  to  which  Mr.  Wood  proceeded  to  give  re- 
plies to  the  best  of  his  knowledge.  But  Stephenson,  who  up  to 
that  time  had  stood  behind  Wood,  screened  from  notice,  observing 
that  the  explanations  given  were  not  quite  correct,  could  no  longer 
control  himself ,  and,  standing  forward,  he  proceeded  in  his  strong 
Northumbrian  dialect  to  describe  the  lamp  down  to  its  minutest 
details.  He  then  produced  several  bladders  full  of  carbureted 
hydrogen,  which  he  had  collected  from  the  blowers  in  the  Kill- 
ingworth  mine,  and  proved  the  safety  of  his  lamp  by  numerous 
experiments  with  the  gas,  repeated  in  various  ways,  his  earnest 
and  impressive  manner  exciting  in  the  minds  of  his  auditors  the 
liveliest  interest  both  in  the  inventor  and  his  invention. 

Shortly  after,  Sir  H.  Davy's  model  lamp  was  received  and  ex- 
hibited to  the  coal-miners  at  Newcastle,  on  which  occasion  the 
observation  was  made  by  several  gentlemen,  "  Why,  it  is  the  same 
as  Stephenson's !" 


190  STEPHENSON'S  MERITS  DENIED.  [PART  II. 

Notwithstanding  Stephenson's  claim  to  be  regarded  as  the  first 
inventor  of  the  Tube  Safety-lamp,  his  merits  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  generally  recognized.  Sir  Humphry  Davy  carried  off  the 
larger  share  of  the  eclat  which  attached  to  the  discovery.  What 
chance  had  the  unknown  workman  of  Killingworth  with  so  dis- 
tinguished a  competitor  ?  The  one  was  as  yet  but  a  colliery  en- 
gine-wright,  scarce  raised  above  the  manual-labor  class,  without 
chemical  knowledge  or  literary  culture,  pursuing  his  experiments 
in  obscurity,  with  a  view  only  to  usefulness ;  the  other  was  the 
scientific  prodigy  of  his  day,  the  pet  of  the  Eoyal  Society,  the 
favorite  of  princes,  the  most  brilliant  of  lecturers,  and  the  most 
popular  of  philosophers. 

No  small  indignation  was  expressed  by  the  friends  of  Sir  Hum- 
phry Davy  at  Stephenson's  "  presumption"  in  laying  claim  to  the 
invention  of  the  Safety-lamp.  The  scientific  class  united  to  ig- 
nore him  entirely  in  the  matter.  In  1831,  Dr.  Paris,  in  his 
"  Life  of  Sir  Humphry  Davy,"  thus  wrote :  "  It  will  hereafter  be 
scarcely  believed  that  an  invention  so  eminently  scientific,  and 
which  could  never  have  been  derived  but  from  the  sterling  treas- 
ury of  science,  should  have  been  claimed  on  behalf  of  an  en- 
gine-wright  of  Killingworth,  of  the  name  of  Stephenson — a  per- 
son not  even  possessing  a  knowledge  of  the  elements  of  chemis- 
try." 

But  Stephenson  was  really  far  above  claiming  for  himself  an 
invention  not  his  own.  He  had  already  accomplished  a  far 
greater  thing  even  than  the  making  of  a  safety-lamp :  he  had 
constructed  a  successful  locomotive,  which  was  to  be  seen  in  daily 
work  on  the  Killingworth  Railway.  By  the  improvements  he 
had  made  in  the  engine,  he  might  almost  be  said  to  have  invent- 
ed it ;  yet  no  one — not  even  the  philosophers — detected  as  yet  the 
significance  of  that  wonderful  machine.  It  excited  no  scientific 
interest,  called  forth  no  leading  articles  in  the  newspapers  or  the 
reviews,  and  formed  the  subject  of  no  eloquent  lectures  at  the 
Royal  Society ;  for  railways  were  as  yet  comparatively  unknown, 
and  the  might  which  slumbered  in  the  locomotive  was  scarcely, 
as  yet,  even  dreamed  of.  What  railways  were  to  become  rested 
in  a  great  measure  with  that  "  engine-wright  of  Killingworth,  of 
the  name  of  Stephenson,"  though  he  was  scarcely  known  as  yet 
beyond  the  bounds  of  his  own  district. 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE  DAVY  TESTIMONIAL.  191 

As  to  the  value  of  the  invention  of  the  safety-lamp  there  could 
be  no  doubt,  and  the  colliery  owners  of  Durham  and  Northum- 
berland, to  testify  their  sense  of  its  importance,  determined  to 
present  a  testimonial  to  its  inventor.  The  friends  of  Sir  H.  Davy 
met  in  August,  1816,  to  take  steps  to  raise  a  subscription  for  the 
purpose.  The  advertised  object  of  the  meeting  was  to  present 
him  with  a  reward  for  the  invention  of  his  safety-lamp."  To 
this  no  objection  could  be  taken ;  for,  though  the  principle  on 
which  the  safety-lamps  of  Stephenson  and  Davy  were  constructed 
was  the  same,  and  although  Stephenson's  lamp  was  unquestion- 
ably the  first  successful  lamp  that  had  been  constructed  on  such 
principle,  and  proved  to  be  efficient,  yet  Sir  H.  Davy  did  invent 
a  safety-lamp,  no  doubt  quite  independently  of  all  that  Stephen- 
son  had  done ;  and  having  directed  his  careful  attention  to  the 
subject,  and  elucidated  the  true  theory  of  explosion  of  carbureted 
hydrogen,  he  was  entitled  to  all  praise  and  reward  for  his  labor. 
But  when  the  meeting  of  coal-owners  proposed  to  raise  a  sub- 
scription for  the  purpose  of  presenting  Sir  II.  Davy  with  a  reward 
for  "his  invention  of  the  safety-lamp,"  the  case  was  entirely 
altered,  and  Stephenson's  friends  then  proceeded  to  assert  his 
claims  to  be  regarded  as  its  first  inventor. 

Many  meetings  took  place  on  the  subject,  and  much  discussion 
ensued,  the  result  of  which  was  that  .a  sum  of  £2000  was  pre- 
sented to  Sir  Humphry  Davy  as  "the  inventor  of  the  safety- 
lamp  ;"  but,  at  the  same  time,  a  purse  of  100  guineas  was  voted 
to  George  Stephenson,  in  consideration  of  what  he  had  done  in 
the  same  direction.  This  result  was,  however,  very  unsatisfac- 
tory to  Stephenson,  as  well  as  to  his  friends ;  and  Mr.  Brandling, 
of  Gosforth,  suggested  to  him  that,  the  subject  being  now  fairly 
before  the  public,  he  should  publish  a  statement  of  the  facts  on 
which  liis  claim  was  founded. 

But  this  was  not  at  all  in  George  Stephenson's  line.  He  had 
never  appeared  in  print  before,  and  it  seemed  to  him  a  far  more 
formidable  thing  to  write  a  letter  for  publication  in  "the  papers" 
than  even  to  invent  a  safety-lamp  or  design  a  locomotive.  Hav- 
ing called  his  son  Robert  to  his  assistance,  he  set  him  down  ber 
fore  a  sheet  of  foolscap,  and  when  all  was  ready,  he  said,  "  Now, 
put  down  there  just  what  I  tell  you."  The  composition  of  this 
letter,  as  we  were  informed  by  the  writer  of  it,  occupied  more 


192  THE  STEPHENSON  TESTIMONIAL.  [PAKT  H. 

evenings  than  one;  and  when  it  was  at  length  finished  after 
many  corrections,  and  fairly  copied  out,  the  father  and  son  set 
out  —  the  latter  dressed  in  his  Sunday's  round  jacket  —  to  lay 
the  joint  production  before  Mr.  Brandling,  at  Gosforth  House. 
Glancing  over  the  letter,  Mr.  Brandling  said,  "  George,  this  will 
never  do."  "  It  is  all  true,  sir,"  was  the  reply.  "  That  may  be ; 
but  it  is  badly  written."  Kobert  blushed,  for  he  thought  it  was 
the  penmanship  that  was  called  in  question,  and  he  had  written 
his  very  best.  Mr.  Brandling  then  requested  his  visitors  to  sit 
down  while  he  put  the  letter  in  a  more  polished  form,  which  he 
did,  and  it  was  shortly  after  published  in  the  local  papers. 

As  the  controversy  continued  for  some  time  longer  to  be  car- 
ried on  in  the  Newcastle  papers,  Mr.  Stephenson,  in  the  year 
1817,  consented  to  publish  the  detailed  plans,  with  descriptions, 
of  the  several  safety-lamps  which  he  had  contrived  for  use  in  the 
Killingworth  Colliery.  The  whole  forms  a  pamphlet  of  only 
sixteen  pages  of  letter-press.* 

His  friends,  being  fully  satisfied  of  his  claims  to  priority  as 
the  inventor  of  the  safety-lamp  used  in  the  Killingworth  and 
other  collieries,  proceeded  to  hold  a  public  meeting  for  the  pur- 
pose of  presenting  him  with  a  reward  "  for  the  valuable  service 
he  had  thus  rendered  to  mankind."  Charles  J.  Brandling,  Esq., 
occupied  the  chair;  and  several  resolutions  were  passed,  of  which 
the  first  and  most  important  was  as  follows:  "That  it  is  the 
opinion  of  this  meeting  that  Mr.  George  Stephenson,  having  dis- 
covered the  fact  that  explosion  of  hydrogen  gas  will  not  pass 
through  tubes  and  apertures  of  small  dimensions,  and  having 
been  the  first  to  apply  that  principle  in  the  construction  of  a 
safety-lamp,  is  entitled  to  a  public  reward." 

A  subscription  was  immediately  commenced  with  this  object, 
and  a  committee  was  formed,  consisting  of  the  Earl  of  Strath- 
more,  C.  J.  Brandling,  and  others.  The  subscription  list  was 
headed  by  Lord  Ravensworth,  one  of  the  partners  in  the  Killing- 
worth  Colliery,  who  showed  his  appreciation  of  the  merits  of 
Stephenson  by  giving  100  guineas.  C.  J.  Brandling  and  part- 
ners gave  a  like  sum,  and  Matthew  Bell  and  partners,  and  John 
Brandling  and  partners,  gave  50  guineas  each. 

'  "A  Description  of  the  Safety-lamp,  invented  by  George  Stephenson,  and  now  in 
use  in  the  Killingworth  Colliery."  London,  1817. " 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE  STEPHENSON  AND  DAVY  CONTROVERSY.        193 

When  the  resolutions  appeared  in  the  newspapers,  the  scien- 
tific friends  of  Sir  Humphry  Davy  in  London  met,  and  passed  a 
series  of  counter-resolutions,  which  they  published,  declaring 
their  opinion  that  Mr.  Stephenson  was  not  the  author  of  the  dis- 
covery of  the  fact  that  explosion  of  hydrogen  will  not  pass 
through  tubes  and  apertures  of  small  dimensions,  and  that  he 
was  not  the  first  to  apply  that  principle  to  the  construction  of  a 
safety-lamp.  To  these  counter -resolutions  were  attached  the 
well-known  names  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  P.R.S.,  William  Thomas 
Brande,  Charles  Hatchett,  W.  H.  Wollaston,  and  Thomas  Young. 

Mr.  Stephenson's  friends  then,  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure, 
and  with  a  view  to  set  the  question  at  rest,  determined  to  take 
evidence  in  detail  as  to  the  date  of  discovery  by  George  Stephen- 
son  of  the  fact  in  question,  and  its  practical  application  by  him 
in  the  formation  and  actual  trial  of  his  safety-lamp.  The  wit- 
nesses examined  were  George  Stephenson  himself,  Mr.  Nicholas 
Wood,  and  John  Moodie,  who  had  been  present  at  the  first  trial 
of  the  lamp ;  the  several  tinmen  who  made  the  lamps ;  the  secre- 
tary and  other  members  of  the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society 
of  Newcastle,  who  were  present  at  the  exhibition  of  the  third 
lamp ;  and  some  of  the  workmen  who  were  present  at  the  Kill- 
ingworth  Colliery,  who  had  been  witnesses  of  Stephenson's  ex- 
periments on  fire-damp  made  with  the  lamps  lat  different  times 
before  Sir  Humphry  Davy's  investigations  had  been  heard  of. 
This  evidence  was  quite  conclusive  to  the  minds  of  the  gentle- 
men who  investigated  the  subject,  and  they  published  it  in  1817, 
together  with  their  Report,  in  which  they  declared  that,  "  after  a 
careful  inquiry  into  the  merits  of  the  case,  conducted,  as  they 
trust,  in  a  spirit  of  fairness  and  moderation,  they  can  perceive  no 
satisfactory  reason  for  changing  thdir  opinion."* 

*  The  committee,  in  their  report,  after  setting  forth  in  a  tabular  form  the  dates  at 
which  Stephenson  and  Davy  verified  their  theories  by  experiments,  and  brought  out 
their  respective  safety-lamps,  proceeded  to  say:  "The  friends  of  Mr.  Stephenson, 
with  this  table  before  them,  conceive  their  resolution  to  be  fully  borne  out  by  the  tes- 
timony of  dates  and  facts,  so  far  as  they  are  known ;  and  without  the  slightest  idea 
or  wish  of  detracting  from  the  scientific  fame,  honor,  or  veracity  of  Sir  Humphry 
Davy,  they  would  repeat,  and  confine  themselves  to  the  simple  assertion  of  their  be- 
lief, that  Mr.  Stephenson  was  the  first  to  construct  a  lamp  upon  the  principle  in  ques- 
tion. And  when  the  friends  of  Mr.  Stephenson  remember  the  humble  and  laborious 
station  of  life  which  he  has  occupied ;  when  they  consider  the  scanty  means  and  op- 
portunities which  he  has  had  for  pursuing  researches  in  practical  science,  and  look  to 

N 


194  THE  STEPUENSON  AND  DA  VY  LAMPS.         •  [PART  II. 

The  Stephenson  subscription,  when  collected,  amounted  to 
£1000.  Part  of  the  money  was  devoted  to  the  purchase  of  a 
silver  tankard,  which  was  presented  to  the  inventor,  together 
with  the  balance  of  the  subscription,  at  a  public  dinner  given  in 
the  Assembly  Kooms  at  Newcastle.*  But  what  gave  Stephen- 
son  even  greater  pleasure  than  the  silver  tankard  and  purse  of 
sovereigns  was  the  gift  of  a  silver  watch,  purchased  by  small  sub- 
scriptions collected  among  the  colliers  themselves,  and  presented 
to  him  by  them  as  a  token  of  their  esteem  and  regard  for  him  as 
a  man,  as  well  as  of  their  gratitude  for  the  perseverance  and 
skill  with  which  he  had  prosecuted  his  valuable  and  life-saving 
invention  to  a  successful  issue.  To  the  last  day  of  his  life  he 
spoke  with  pride  of  this  watch  as  the  most  highly-prized  gift  he 
had  ever  received. 

However  great  maybe  the  merits  of  Stephenson  in  connection 
with  the  invention  of  the  tube  safety-lamp,  they  can  not  be  re- 
garded as  detracting  in  any  degree  from  the  reputation  of  Sir 
Humphry  Davy.  His  inquiries  into  the  explosive  properties  of 
carbureted  hydrogen  gas  were  quite  original,  and  his  discover}7 
of  the  fact  that  explosion  will  not  pass  through  tubes  of  a  certain 
diameter  was  made  independently  of  all  that  Stephenson  had 
done  in  verification  of  the  same  fact.  It  would  even  appear 
that  Mr.  Smithson  Tennant  and  Dr.  Wollaston  had  observed  the 
same  fact  several  years  before,  though  neither  Stephenson  nor 
Davy  knew  of  it  while  they  were  prosecuting  their  experiments. 
Sir  Humphry  Davy's  subsequent  modification  of  the  tube-lamp, 
by  which,  while  diminishing  the  diameter,  he  in  the  same  ratio 
shortened  the  tubes  without  danger,  and  in  the  form  of  wire- 

the  improvements  and  discoveries  which,  notwithstanding  so  many  disadvantages,  he 
has  been  enabled  to  make  by  the  judicious  and  unremitting  exercise  of  the  energy 
and  acuteness  of  his  natural  understanding,  they  can  not  persuade  themselves  that 
they  have  said  any  thing  more  than  any  liberal  and  feeling  mind  would  most  readily 
admit." 

*  The  tankard  bore  the  following  inscription :  "This  piece  of  plate,  purchased  with 
a  part  of  the  sum  of  .£1000,  a  subscription  raised  for  the  remuneration  of  Mr.  GEORGE 
STEPHENSON  for  having  discovered  the  fact  that  inflamed  fire-damp  will  not  pass 
through  tubes  and  apertures  of  small  dimensions,  and  having  been  the  first  to  apply 
that  principle  in  the  construction  of  a  safety-lamp  calculated  for  the  preservation  of 
human  life  in  situations  formerly  of  the  greatest  danger,  was  presented  to  him  at  a 
meeting  of  the  subscribers,  Charles  John  Brandling,  Esq.,  in  the  chair,  January  12th, 
1818." 


CHAP.  VI.]   MERITS  OF  THE  "GEORDY"  SAFETY-LAMP.  195 

gauze  enveloped  the  safety-lamp  by  a  multiplicity  of  tubes,  was 
a  beautiful  application  of  the  true  theory  which  he  had  formed 
upon  the  subject. 

The  increased  number  of  accidents  which  have  occurred  from 
explosions  in  coal-mines  since  the  general  introduction  of  the 
Davy  lamp  led  to  considerable  doubts  being  entertained  as  to  its 
safety,  and  inquiries  were  consequently  made  as  to  the  means  by 
which  it  might  be  farther  improved ;  for  experience  has  shown 
that,  under  certain  circumstances,  the  Davy  lamp  is  not  safe. 
Stephenson  was  himself  of  opinion  that  the  modification  of  his 
own  and  Sir  Humphry  Davy's  lamp,  by  combining  the  glass  cyl- 
inder with  the  wire-gauze,  would  give  the  best  lamp.  At  the 
same  time,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  Davy  and  the  Geordy 
lamps  alike  failed  to  stand  the  severe  tests  to  which  they  were 
submitted  by  Dr.  Pereira,  before  the  Committee  on  Accidents  in 
Mines.  Indeed,  Dr.  Pereira  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that,  when 
exposed  to  a  current  of  explosive  gas,  the  Davy  lamp  is  "de- 
cidedly unsafe,"  and  that  the  experiments  by  which  its  safety  had 
been  "  demonstrated"  in  the  lecture-room  had  proved  entirely 
"  fallacious." 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that,  under  circumstances  in  which  the 
wire-gauze  of  the  Davy  lamp  becomes  red-hot  from  the  high  ex- 
plosiveness  of  the  gas,  the  Geordy  lamp  is  extinguished ;  and  we 
can  not  but  think  that  this  fact  testifies  to  the  decidedly  superior 
safety  of  the  Geordy.  An  accident  occurred  in  the  Oaks  Col- 
liery Pit  at  Barnsley  on  the  20th  of  August,  1857,  which  strik- 
ingly exemplified  the  respective  qualities  of  the  lamps.  A  sud- 
den outburst  of  gas  took  place  from  the  floor  of  the  mine  along 
a  distance  of  fifty  yards.  Fortunately,  the  men  working  in  the 
pit  at  the  time  were  all  supplied  with  safety-lamps — the  hewers 
with  Stephenson's,  and  the  hurriers  with  Davy's.  On  this  occa- 
sion, the  whole  of  the  Stephenson  lamps,  over  a  space  of  five 
hundred  yards,  were  extinguished  almost  instantaneously ;  where- 
as the  Davy  lamps  were  filled  with  fire  and  became  red-hot,  so 
that  several  of  the  men  using  them  had  their  hands  burnt  by  the 
gauze.  Had  a  strong  current  of  air  been  blowing  through  the 
gallery  at  the  time,  an  explosion  would  most  probably  have  taken 
place — an  accident  which,  it  will  be  observed,  could  not,  un- 
der such  circumstances,  occur  from  the  use  of  the  Geordy, 


196  MERITS  OF  THE  "  GEORDY"  SAFETY-LAMP.      [PART  II. 

which  is  immediately  extinguished  as  soon  as  the  air  becomes 
explosive.* 

Nicholas  Wood,  a  good  judge,  has  said  of  the  two  inventions, 
"  Priority  has  been  claimed  for  each  of  them — I  believe  the  in- 
ventions to  be  parallel.  By  different  roads  they  both  arrived  at 
the  same  result.  Stephenson's  is  the  superior  lamp'.  Davy's  is 
safe — Stephenson's  is  safer." 

When  the  question  of  priority  was  under  discussion  at  Mr. 
Lough's  studio  in  1857,  Sir  Matthew  White  Kidley  asked  Eobert 
Stephenson,  who  was  present,  for  his  opinion  on  the  subject.  His 
answer  was, "  I  am  not  exactly  the  person  to  give  an  unbiased 

*  The  accident  above  referred  to  was  described  in  the  "  Barnsley  Times,"  a  copy 
of  which,  containing  the  account,  Robert  Stephenson  forwarded  to  the  author,  with 
the  observation  that  "it  is  evidently  written  by  a  practical  miner,  and  is,  I  think, 
worthy  of  record  in  my  father's  Life."  Mr.  John  Browne,  C.E.,  Barnsley,  in  a  com- 
munication which  appeared  in  the  "  Times"  of  December  24th,  1860,  observed : 

"At  the  period  of  this  occurrence  we  had  two  kinds  of  safety-lamps  in  use  in  this 
pit,  viz., '  Davy'  and  '  Stephenson,'  and  the  gas,  in  going  off  to  the  upcast  shaft,  had 
to  pass  great  numbers  of  men,  who  were  at  work  with  both  kinds  of  lamps.  The 
whole  of  the  '  Davy's'  became  red-hot  almost  instantaneously  from  the  rapid  ignition 
of  the  gas  within  the  gauze ;  the  '  Stephenson's'  were  as  instantly  self-extinguished 
from  the  same  cause,  it  being  the  prominent  qualification  of  these  lamps  that,  in  ad- 
dition to  affording  a  somewhat  better  light  than  the  '  Davy'  lamp,  they  are  suddenly  / 
extinguished  when  placed  within  a  highly  explosive  atmosphere,  so  that  no  person 
can  remain  working  and  run  the  risk  of  his  lamp  becoming  red-hot,  which,  under  such 
circumstances,  would  be  the  result  with  the  '  Davy'  lamp. 

"  The  red-hot  lamps  were,  most  fortunately,  all  safely  put  out,  although  the  men  in 
many  cases  had  their  hands  severely  burnt  by  the  gauze ;  but  from  that  time  I  fully 
resolved  to  adopt  the  exclusive  use  of  the  '  Stephenson'  lamps,  and  not  expose  men  to 
the  fearful  risk  they  must  run  from  working  with  '  Davy'  lamps  during  the  probable 
recurrence  of  a  similar  ev%nt. 

"I  may  remark  that  the  '  Stephenson'  lamp,  originally  invented  by  the  great  George 
Stephenson,  in  its  present  shape  combines  the  merits  of  his  discovery  with  that  of  Sir 
Humphry  Davy,  constituting,  to  my  mind,  the  safest  lamp  at  present  known,  and  I 
speak  from  the  long  use  of  many  hundreds  daily  in  various  collieries." 

In  an  account  given  in  the  "  Times"  of  the  10th  of  August,  1867,  of  a  number  of 
experiments  made  upon  different  safety-lamps  at  the  Barnsley  Gas-works,  occasioned 
by  the  terrible  explosion  at  the  Lund  Hill  Colliery,  it  is  stated  that  the  different 
lamps  were  tested  with  the  following  results :  " The  'Davy'  lamp  with  no  shield  on 
the  outside  exploded  the  gas  in  six  seconds,  and  with  the  shield  inside  the  gauze  in 
nine  seconds.  The  '  Belgian'  lamp  exploded  in  ten  seconds ;  the  '  Mozard'  in  ten 
seconds ;  the  small '  Clanny'  in  seven  seconds,  the  large  one  in  ten  seconds ;  and  the 
'  Stephenson'  in  seventy-five  seconds.  Although  the  '  Stephenson'  is  undoubtedly  the 
best,  it  will  be  seen  that  none  of  the  so-called  safety-lamps  can  be  depended  upon 
when  coming  in  contact  with  a  strong  explosive  current  of  fire-damp  and  air." 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE  "GEORDY"  SAFETY-LAMP.  197 

opinion ;  but,  as  you  ask  me  frankly,  I  will  as  frankly  say,  that 
if  George  Stephenson  had  never  lived,  Sir  Humphry  Davy  could 
and  most  probably  would  have  invented  the  safety-lamp;  but 
again,  if  Sir  Humphry  Davy  had  never  lived,  George  Stephen- 
son  certainly  would  have  invented  the  safety-lamp,  as  I  believe 
he  did,  independently  of  all  that  Sir  Humphry  Davy  had  done  in 
the  matter." 

To  this  day  the  Geordy  lamp  continues  in  regular  use  in  the 
Killingworth  Collieries,  and  the  Killingworth  pitmen  have  ex- 
pressed to  the  writer  their  decided  preference  for  it  compared 
with  the  Davy.  It  is  certainly  a  strong  testimony  in  its  favor 
that  no  accident  is  known  to  have  arisen  from  its  use  since  it  was 
generally  introduced  into  the  Killingworth  pits. 


THE  8TEPUENSON   TANKARD. 


198  KILLINGWORTH  COAL-MINING.  [PART  II. 


CHAPTEK  VII. 

GEORGE  STEPHENSON'S  FAHTHER  IMPROVEMENTS  IN  THE  LOCOMOTIVE 

THE   HETTON  RAILWAY ROBERT   STEPHENSON  AS  VIEWER'S  AP- 
PRENTICE  AND    STUDENT. 

STEPHENSON'S  experiments  on  fire-damp,  and  his  labors  in  con- 
nection with  the  invention  of  the  safety-lamp,  occupied  but  a 
small  portion  of  his  time,  which  was  necessarily  devoted,  for  the 
most  part,  to  the  ordinary  business  of  the  colliery.  From  the 
.day  of  his  appointment  as  engine- wright,  one  of  the  subjects 
which  particularly  occupied  his  attention  was  the  best  practical 
method  of  winning  and  raising  the  coal.  Nicholas  "Wood  has 
said  of  him  that  he  was  one  of  the  first  to  introduce  steam  ma- 
chinery underground  with  that  object.  Indeed,  the  Killingworth 
mines  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  models  of  the  district;  and 
when  Mr.  Robert  Bald,  the  celebrated  Scotch  mining  engineer, 
was  requested  by  Dr.  (afterward  Sir  David)  Brewster  to  prepare 
the  article  "  Mine"  for  the  "  Edinburg  Encyclopaedia,"  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Killingworth  principally  for  the  purpose  of  examining 
Stephenson's  underground  machinery.  Mr.  Bald  has  favored  us 
with  an  account  of  his  visit  made  with  that  object  in  1818,  and 
he  states  that  he  was  much  struck  with  the  novelty,  as  well  as 
the  remarkable  efficiency  of  Stephenson's  arrangements,  especial- 
ly in  regard  to  what  is  called  the  nnderdip  working. 

"  I  found,"  he  says, "  that  a  mine  had  been  commenced  near  the 
main  pit-bottom,  and  carried  forward  down  the  dip  or  slope  of  the 
coal,  the  rate  of  dip  being  about  one  in  twelve ;  and  the  coals  were 
drawn  from  the  dip  to  the  pit-bottom  by  the  steam  machinery  in  a 
very  rapid  manner.  The  water  which  oozed  from  the  upper  win- 
ning was  disposed  of  at  the  pit-bottom  in  a  barrel  or  trunk,  and 
was  drawn  up  by  the  power  of  the  engine  which  worked  the  other 
machinery.  The  dip  at  the  time  of  my  visit  was  nearly  a  mile  in 
length,  but  has  since  been  greatly  extended.  As  I  was  consider- 
ably tired  by  my  wanderings  in  the  galleries,  when  I  arrived  at  the 


CHAP.  VII.]          THE  LOCOMOTIVE  AND  THE  ROAD.  199 

forehead  of  the  dip,  Mr.  Stephenson  said  to  me,  'You  may  very 
speedily  be  carried  up  to  the  rise  by  laying  yourself  flat  upon  the 
coal-baskets,'  which  were  laden  and  ready  to  be  taken  up  the  in- 
cline. This  I  at  once  did,  and  was  straightway  wafted  on  the  wings 
of  fire  to  the  bottom  of  the  pit,  from  whence  I  was  borne  swiftly  up 
to  the  light  by  the  steam  machinery  on  the  pit-head." 

The  whole  of  the  working  arrangements  seemed  to  Mr.  Bald 
to  be  conducted  in  the  most  skillful  and  efficient  manner,  reflect- 
ing the  highest  credit  on  the  colliery  engineer. 

Besides  attending  to  the  underground  arrangements,  the  im- 
proved transit  of  the  coals  above  ground  from  the  pit-head  to  the 
shipping-place  demanded  an  increasing  share  of  Stephenson's  at- 
tention. Every  day's  experience  convinced  him  that  the  locomo- 
tive constructed  by  him  after  his  patent  of  the  year  1815  was  far 
from  perfect,  though  he  continued  to  entertain  confident  hopes 
of  its  complete  eventual  success.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  say 
that  the  locomotive  would  yet  supersede  every  other  traction- 
power  for  drawing  heavy  loads.  It  is  true,  many  persons  contin- 
ued to  regard  his  traveling  engine  as  little  better  than  a  danger- 
ous curiosity ;  and  some,  shaking  their  heads,  predicted  for  it "  a 
terrible  blow-up  some  day."  Nevertheless,  it  was  daily  perform- 
ing its  work  with  regularity,  dragging  the  coal-wagons  between 
the  colliery  and  the  staiths,  and  saving  the  labor  of  many  men 
and  horses. 

There  was  not,  however,  so  marked  a  saving  in  the  expense  of 
haulage  as  to  induce  the  colliery  masters  to  adopt  locomotive 
power  generally  as  a  substitute  for  horses.  How  it  could  be  im- 
proved, and  rendered  more  efficient  as  well  as  economical,  was 
constantly  present  to  Stephenson's  mind.  He  was  fully  con- 
scious of  the  imperfections  both  in  the  road  and  the  engine,  and 
gave  himself  no  rest  until  he  had  brought  the  efficiency  of  both 
up  to  a  higher  point.  Thus  he  worked  his  way  inch  by  inch, 
slowly  but  surely,  and  every  step  gained  was  made  good  as  a  ba- 
sis for  farther  improvements. 

At  an  early  period  of  his  labors,  or  about  the  time  when  he 
had  completed  his  second  locomotive,  he  began  to  direct  his  par- 
ticular attention  to  the  state  of  the  Road,  perceiving  that  the  ex- 
tended use  of  the  locomotive  must  necessarily  depend  in  a  great 
measure  upon  the  perfection,  solidity,  continuity,  and  smoothness 


200  HALF-LAP  JOINTED  RAILS.  [PART  II. 

of  the  way  along  which  the  engine  traveled.  Even  at  that  early 
period  he  was  in  the  habit  of  regarding  the  road  and  the  loco- 
motive as  one  machine,  speaking  of  the  Eail  and  the  Wheel  as 
"Man  and  Wife." 

All  railways  were  at  that  time  laid  in  a  careless  and  loose  man- 
ner, and  great  inequalities  of  level  were  allowed  to  occur  without 
much  attention  being  paid  to  repairs.  The  consequence  was  a 
great  loss  of  power,  as  well  as  much  wear  and  tear  of  the  ma- 
chinery, by  the  frequent  jolts  and  blows  of  the  wheels  against  the 
rails.  Stephenson's  first  object,  therefore,  was  to  remove  the  in- 
equalities produced  by  the  imperfect  junction  between  rail  and 
rail. 

At  that  time  (1816)  the  rails  were  made  of  cast  iron,  each  rail 
being  about  three  feet  long ;  and  sufficient  care  was  not  taken  to 
maintain  the  points  of  junction  on  the  same  level.  The  chairs, 
or  cast-iron  pedestals  into  which  the  rails  were  inserted,  were  flat 
at  the  bottom,  so  that  whenever  any  disturbance  took  place  in  the 
stone  blocks  or  sleepers  supporting  them,  the  flat  base  of  the  chair 
upon  which  the  rails  rested  being  tilted  by  unequal  subsidence, 
the  end  of  one  rail  became  depressed,  while  that  of  the  other  was 
elevated.  Hence  constant  jolts  and  shocks,  the  reaction  of  which 
very  often  caused  the  fracture  of  the  rails,  and  occasionally  threw 
the  engine  off  the  road. 

To  remedy  this  imperfection,  Mr.  Stephenson  devised  a  new 
chair,  with  an  entirely  new  mode  of  fixing  the  rails  therein.  In- 
stead of  adopting  the  butt-joint  which  had  hitherto  been  used  in 
all  cast-iron  rails,  he  adopted  the  half-la/p  jointly  which  means 
...______J==^^-  the  rails  extended  a  cer- 

tain distance  over  each 
other  at  the  ends  like  a 
scarf -joint.  These  ends, 
instead  of  resting  on  the 
flat  chair,  were  made  to 
rest  upon  the  apex  of  a 
curve  forming  the  bottom  of  the  chair.  The  supports  were  also 
extended  from  three  feet  to  three  feet  nine  inches  or  four  feet 
apart.  These  rails  were  accordingly  substituted  for  the  old  cast- 
iron  plates  on  the  Killingworth  Colliery  Eailway,  and  they  were 
found  to  be  a  very  great  improvement  on  the  previous  system, 


HALF-LAP  JOINT. 


CHAP.  VII.]    STEPHENSON'S  IMPROVED  LOCOMOTIVE. 


201 


adding  both  to  the  efficiency  of  the  horse-power  (still  used  on  the 
railway)  and  to  the  smooth  action  of  the  locomotive  engine,  but 
more  particularly  increasing  the  efficiency  of  the  latter. 

This  improved  form  of  the  rail  and  chair  was  embodied  in  a 
patent  taken  out  in  the  joint  names  of  Mr.  Losh,  of  Newcastle, 
iron  founder,  and  of  Mr.  Stephenson,  bearing  date  the  30th  of 
September,  1816.  Mr.  Losh  being  a  wealthy,  enterprising  iron- 
manufacturer,  and  having  confidence  in  George  Stephenson  and 
his  improvements,  found  the  money  for  the  purpose  of  taking 
out  the  patent,  which  in  those  days  was  a  very  costly  as  well  as 
troublesome  affair.  At  the  same  time,  Mr.  Losh  guaranteed  Ste- 
phenson a  salary  of  £100  per  annum,  with  a  share  in  the  profits 
arising  from  liis  inventions,  conditional  on  his  attending  at  the 
Walker  Iron- works  two  days  a  week — an  arrangement  to  which 
the  owners  of  the  Killingworth  Colliery  cheerfully  gave  their 
sanction. 

The  specification  of  1816  included  various  important  improve- 
ments in  the  locomotive  itself.  The  wheels  of  the  engine  were 
improved,  being  altered  from  cast  to  malleable  iron,  in  whole  or 
in  part,  by  which  they  were  made  lighter  as  well  as  more  durable 
and  safe.  The  patent  also  included  the  ingenious  and  original 


OLD  KILLTXGWOBTH  LOCOMOTIVE  STILL  IN  USE. 


202  EXPERIMENTS  ON  FRICTION.  [PABT  IL 

contrivance  by  which  the  steam  generated  in  the  boiler  was  made 
to  serve  as  a  substitute  for  springs — an  expedient  already  ex- 
plained in  a  preceding  chapter. 

The  result  of  the  actual  working  of  the  new  locomotive  on  the 
improved  road  amply  justified  the  promises  held  forth  in  the 
specification.  The  traffic  was  conducted  with  greater  regularity 
and  economy,  and  the  superiority  of  the  engine,  as  compared  with 
horse  traction,  became  still  more  marked.  And  it  is  a  fact  worthy 
of  notice,  that  the  identical  engines  constructed  by  Stephenson  in 
1816  are  to  this  day  in  regular  useful  work  upon  the  Killingworth 
Railway,  conveying  heavy  coal-trains  at  the  speed  of  between  five 
and  six  miles  an  hour,  probably  as  economically  as  any  of  the 
more  perfect  locomotives  now  in  use. 

George  Stephenson's  endeavors  having  been  attended  with  such 
marked  success  in  the  adaptation  of  locomotive  power  to  railways, 
his  attention  was  called  by  many  of  his  friends,  about  the  year 
1818,  to  the  application  of  steam  to  traveling  on  common  roads. 
It  was  from  this  point,  indeed,  that  the  locomotive  had  started, 
Trevithick's  first  engine  having  been  constructed  with  this  special 
object.  Stephenson's  friends  having  observed  how  far  behind  he 
had  left  the  original  projector  of  the  locomotive  in  its  application 
to  railroads,  perhaps  naturally  inferred  that  he  would  be  equally 
successful  in  applying  it  to  the  purpose  for  which  Trevithick  and 
Vivian  had  intended  their  first  engine.  But  the  accuracy  with 
which  he  estimated  the  resistance  to  which  loads  were  exposed 
on  railways,  arising  from  friction  and  gravity,  led  him  at  a  very 
early  stage  to  reject  the  idea  of  ever  applying  steam-power  eco- 
nomically to  common  road  traveling.  In  October,  1818,  he  made 
a  series  of  careful  experiments,  in  conjunction  with  Mr.  Nicholas 
Wood,  on  the  resistance  to  which  carriages  were  exposed  on  rail- 
ways, testing  the  results  by  means  of  a  dynamometer  of  his  own 
contrivance.  The  series  of  practical  observations  made  by  means 
of  this  instrument  were  interesting,  as  the  first  systematic  attempt 
to  determine  the  precise  amount  of  resistance  to  carriages  mov- 
ing along  railways.  It  was  then  for  the  first  time  ascertained  by 
experiment  that  the  friction  was  a  constant  quantity  at  all  ve- 
locities. Although  this  theory  had  long  before  been  developed 
by  Yince  and  Coulomb,  and  was  well  known  to  scientific  men  as 
an  established  truth,  yet,  at  the  time  when  Stephenson  made  his 


CHAP.  VII.]        ROBERT  STEPHENSON'S  NARRATIVE.  203 

» 

experiments,  the  deductions  of  philosophers  on  the  subject  were 
neither  believed  in  nor  acted  upon  by  practical  engineers.  To 
quote  again  from  the  MS.  account  supplied  to  the  author  by 
Kobert  Stephenson  for  the  purposes  of  his  father's  "  Life :" 

"  It  was  maintained  by  many  that  the  results  of  the  experiments 
led  to  the  greatest  possible  mechanical  absurdities.  For  instance, 
it  was  maintained  that,  if  friction  were  constant  at  all  velocities 
upon  a  level  railway,  when  once  a  power  was  applied  to  a  carriage 
which  exceeded  the  friction  of  that  carriage  by  the  smallest  possi- 
ble amount,  that  same  small  excess  of  power  would  be  able  to  con- 
vey the  carriage  along  a  level  railway  at  all  conceivable  velocities. 
When  this  position  was  put  by  those  who  opposed  the  conclusions 
at  which  my  father  had  arrived,  he  felt  great  hesitation  in  main- 
taining his  own  views ;  for  it  appeared  to  him  at  first  sight  really 
to  be — as  it  was  put  by  his  opponents — an  absurdity.  Frequent 
repetition,  however,  of  the  experiments  to  which  I  have  alluded, 
left  no  doubt  upon  his  mind  that  his  conclusion  that  friction  was 
uniform  at  all  velocities  was  a  fact  which  must  be  received  as  posi- 
tively established;  and  he  soon  afterward  boldly  maintained  that 
that  which  was  an  apparent  absurdity  was,  instead,  a  necessary 
consequence.  I  well  remember  the  ridicule  that  was  thrown  upon 
this  view  by  many  of  those  persons  with  whom  he  was  associated 
at  the  time.  Nevertheless,  it  is  undoubted,  that,  could  you  prac- 
tically be  always  applying  a  power  in  excess  of  the  resistance,  a 
constant  increase  of  velocity  would  of  necessity  follow  without  any 
limit.  This  is  so  obvious  to  most  professional  men  of  the  present 
day,  and  is  now  so  axiomatic,  that  I  only  allude  to  the  discussion 
which  took  place  when  these  experiments  of  my  father  were  an- 
nounced for  the  purpose  of  showing  how  small  was  the  amount  of 
science  at  that  time  blended  with  engineering  practice.  A  few 
years  afterward,  an  excellent  pamphlet  was  published  by  Mr.  Sil- 
vester on  this  question ;  he  took  up  the  whole  subject,  and  demon- 
strated in  a  very  simple  and  beautiful  manner  the  correctness  of  all 
the  views  at  which  my  father  had  arrived  by  his  course  of  experi- 
ments. 

"The  other  resistances  to  which  carriages  were  exposed  were 
also  investigated  experimentally  by  my  father.  He  perceived  that 
these  resistances  were  mainly  three — the  first  being  upon  the  axles 
of  the  carriage ;  the  second,  which  may  be  called  the  rolling  re- 
sistance, being  between  the  circumference  of  the  wheel  and  the 
surface  of  the  rail ;  and  the  third  being  the  resistance  of  gravity. 


204:  FRICTION  AND  GRA  VITY.  [PART  II. 

"  The  amount  of  friction  and  gravity  he  accurately  ascertained ; 
but  the  rolling  resistance  was  a  matter  of  greater  difficulty,  for  it 
was  subject  to  great  variation.  He,  however,  satisfied  himself  that 
it  was  so  great,  when  the  surface  presented  to  the  wheel  was  of  a 
rough  character,  that  the  idea  of  working  steam-carriages  econom- 
ically on  common  roads  was  out  of  the  question.  Even  so  early  as 
the  period  alluded  to  he  brought  his  theoretical  calculations  to  a 
practical  test;  he  scattered  sand  upon  the  rails  when  an  engine 
was  running,  and  found  that  a  small  quantity  was  quite  sufficient 
to  retard  and  even  stop  the  most  powerful  locomotive  engine  that 
he  had  at  that  time  made.  And  he  never  failed  to  urge  this  con- 
clusive experiment  upon  the  attention  of  those  who  were  wasting 
their  money  and  time  upon  the  vain  attempt  to  apply  steam  to 
common  roads. 

"The  following  were  the  principal  arguments  which  influenced 
his  mind  to  work  out  the  use  of  the  locomotive  in  a  directly  oppo- 
site course  to  that  pursued  by  a  number  of  ingenious  inventors, 
who,  between  1820  and  1836,  were  engaged  in  attempting  to  apply 
steam-power  to  turnpike  roads.  Having  ascertained  that  resistance 
might  be  taken  as  represented  by  10  Ibs.  to  a  ton  weight  on  a  level 
railway,  it  became  obvious  to  him  that  so  small  a  rise  as  1  in  100 
would  diminish  the  useful  effort  of  a  locomotive  by  upward  of  fifty 
per  cent.  This  fact  called  my  father's  attention  to  the  question  of 
gradients  in  future  locomotive  lines.  He  then  became  convinced 
of  the  vital  importance,  in  an  economical  point  of  view,  of  reducing 
the  country  through  which  a  railway  was  intended  to  pass  to  as 
near  a  level  as  possible.  This  originated  in  his  mind  the  distinct- 
ive character  of  railway  works  as  contradistinguished  from  all  other 
roads ;  for  in  railroads  he  early  contended  that  large  sums  would 
be  wisely  expended  in  perforating  barriers  of  hills  with  long  tun- 
nels, and  in  raising  low  ground  with  the  excess  cut  down  from  the 
adjacent  high  ground.  In  proportion  as  these  views  fixed  them- 
selves upon  his  mind,  and  were  corroborated  by  his  daily  expe- 
rience, he  became  more  and  more  convinced  of  the  hopelessness  of 
applying  steam  locomotion  to  common  roads ;  for  every  argument 
in  favor  of  a  level  railway  was  an  argument  against  the  rough  and 
hilly  course  of  a  common  road.  He  never  ceased  to  urge  upon  the 
patrons  of  road  steam-carriages  that  if,  by  any  amount  of  ingenuity, 
an  engine  could  be  made  which  could  by  possibility  traverse  a 
turnpike  road  at  a  speed  at  least  equal  to  that  obtainable  by  horse- 
power, and  at  a  less  cost,  such  an  engine,  if  applied  to  the  more 
perfect  surface  of  a  railway,  would  have  its  efficiency  enormously 


CHAP.  VH.]  ROAD  LOCOMOTION.  205 

enhanced.  For  instance,  he  calculated  that  if  an  engine  had  been 
constructed,  and  had  been  found  to  travel  uniformly  between  Lon- 
don and  Birmingham  at  an  average  speed  of  10  miles  an  hour — 
conveying,  say,  20  or  30  passengers  at  a  cost  of  Is.  per  mile,  it  was 
clear  that  the  same  engine,  if  applied  to  a  railway,  instead  of  con- 
veying 20  or  30  people,  would  have  conveyed  200  or  300  people, 
and  instead  of  a  speed  of  10  or  12  miles  an  hour,  a  speed  of  at  least 
30  to  40  miles  an  hour  would  have  been  obtained." 

At  this  day  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  the  sagacious  and 
strong  common-sense  views  of  Stephenson  on  this  subject  failed 
to  force  themselves  sooner  upon  the  minds  of  those  who  were 
persisting  in  their  vain  though  ingenious  attempts  to  apply  loco- 
motive power  to  ordinary  roads.  For  a  long  time  they  continued 
to  hold  with  obstinate  perseverance  to  the  belief  that  for  such 
purposes  a  soft  road  was  better  than  a  hard  one — a  road  easily 
crushed  better  than  one  incapable  of  being  crushed;  and  they 
held  to  this  after  it  had  been  demonstrated  in  all  parts  of  the 
mining  districts  that  iron  tram-ways  were  better  than  paved 
roads.  But  the  fallacy  that  iron  was  incapable  of  adhesion  upon 
iron  continued  to  prevail,  and  the  projectors  of  steam-traveling 
on  common  roads  only  shared  in  the  common  belief.  They  still 
considered  that  roughness  of  surface  was  essential  to  produce 
"  bite,"  especially  in  surmounting  acclivities ;  the  truth  being 
that  they  confounded  roughness  of  surface  with  tenacity  of  sur- 
face and  contact  of  parts,  not  perceiving  that  a  yielding  surface 
which  would  adapt  itself  to  the  tread  of  the  wheel  could  never 
become  an  unyielding  surface  to  form  a  fulcrum  for  its  progres- 
sion. 

Although  Stephenson's  locomotive  engines  were  in  daily  use 
for  many  years  on  the  Killingworth  Kailway,  they  excited  com- 
paratively little  interest  They  were  no  longer  experimental,  but 
had  become  an  established  tractive  power.  The  experience  of 
years  had  proved  that  they  worked  more  steadily,  drew  heavier 
loads,  and  were,  on  the  whole,  considerably  more  economical  than 
horses.  Nevertheless,  eight  years  passed  before  another  locomo- 
tive railway  was  constructed  and  opened  for  the  purposes  of  coal 
or  other  traffic. 

It  is  difficult  to  account  for  this  early  indifference  on  the  part 
of  the  public  to  the  merits  of  the  greatest  mechanical  invention 


206  EARLY  NEGLECT  OF  THE  LOCOMOTIVE.         [PART  IT. 

of  the  age.  Steam-carriages  were  exciting  much  interest,  and 
numerous  and  repeated  experiments  were  made  with  them.  The 
improvements  effected  by  M'Adam  in  the  mode  of  constructing 
turnpike  roads  were  the  subject  of  frequent  discussions  in  the 
Legislature,  on  the  grants  of  public  money  being  proposed,  which 
were  from  time  to  time  made  to  him.  Yet  here  at  Killingworth, 
without  the  aid  of  a  farthing  of  government  money,  a  system 
of  road  locomotion  had  been  in  existence  since  1814,  which  was 
destined,  before  many  years,  to  revolutionize  the  internal  com- 
munications of  England  and  of  the  world,  but  of  which  the  En- 
glish public  and  the  English  government  as  yet  knew  nothing. 

But  Stephenson  had  no  means  of  bringing  his  important  in- 
vention prominently  under  the  notice  of  the  public.  He  himself 
knew  well  its  importance,  and  he  already  anticipated  its  eventual 
general  adoption ;  but,  being  an  unlettered  man,  he  could  not 
give  utterance  to  the  thoughts  which  brooded  within  him  on  the 
subject.  Killingworth  Colliery  lay  far  from  London,  the  centre 
of  scientific  life  in  England.  It  was  visited  by  no  savans  nor 
literary  men,  who  might  have  succeeded  in  introducing  to  notice 
the  wonderful  machine  of  Stephenson.  Even  the  local  chroni- 
clers seem  to  have  taken  no  notice  of  the  Killingworth  Railway. 
The  "  Puffing  Billy"  was  doing  its  daily  quota  of  hard  work,  and 
had  long  ceased  to  be  a  curiosity  in  the  neighborhood.  Blenkin- 
sop's  clumsier  and  less  successful  engine — which  has  long  since 
been  disused,  while  Stephenson's  Killingworth  engines  continue 
working  to  this  day — excited  far  more  interest,  partly,  perhaps, 
because  it  was  close  to  the  large  town  of  Leeds,  and  used  to  be 
visited  by  strangers  as  one  of  the  few  objects  of  interest  in  that 
place.  Blenkinsop  was  also  an  educated  man,  and  was  in  com- 
munication with  some  of  the  most  distinguished  personages  of  his 
day  on  the  subject  of  his  locomotive,  which  thus  obtained  consid- 
erable celebrity. 

The  first  engine  constructed  by  Stephenson  to  order,  after  the 
Killingworth  model,  was  made  for  the  Duke  of  Portland  in  1817, 
for  use  upon  his  tram-road,  about  ten  miles  long,  extending  from 
Kilmarnock  to  Troon,  in  Ayrshire.  It  was  employed  to  haul  the 
coals  from  the  duke's  collieries  along  the  line  to  Troon  harbor. 
Its  use  was,  however,  discontinued  in  consequence  of  the  frequent 
breakages  of  the  cast-iron  rails,  by  which  the  working  of  the  line 


CHAP.  VII.]    THE  LOCOMOTIVE  ADOPTED  AT  HETTON.  207 

was  interrupted,  and  accordingly  horses  were  again  employed  as 
before.* 

There  seemed,  indeed,  to  be  so  small  a  prospect  of  introducing 
the  locomotive  into  general  use,  that  Stephenson — perhaps  con- 
scious of  the  capabilities  within  him — again  recurred  to  his  old 
idea  of  emigrating  to  the  United  States.  Before  entering  as 
sleeping  partner  in  a  small  f oundery  at  Forth  Banks,  Newcastle, 
managed  by  Mr.  John  Burrell,  he  had  thrown  out  the  suggestion 
to  the  latter  that  it  would  be  a  good  speculation  for  them  to  emi- 
grate to  North  America,  and  introduce  steam-boats  on  the  great 
inland  lakes  there.  The  first  steamers  were  then  plying  upon  the 
Tyne  before  his  eyes,  and  he  saw  in  them  the  germ  of  a  great 
revolution  in  navigation.  It  occurred  to  him  that  the  great  lakes 
of  North  America  presented  the  finest  field  for  trying  their  won- 
derful powers.  He  was  an  engineer,  and  Mr.  Burrell  was  an 
iron-founder ;  and  between  them,  he  thought  they  might  strike 
out  a  path  to  fortune  in  the  mighty  West.  Fortunately,  this  idea 
remained  a  mere  speculation  so  far  as  Stephenson  was  concerned, 
and  it  was  left  to  others  to  do  what  he  had  dreamed  of  achieving. 
After  all  his  patient  waiting,  his  skill,  industry,  and  perseverance 
were  at  length  about  to  bear  fruit. 

In  1819,  the  owners  of  the  Hetton  Colliery,  in  the  county  of 
Durham,  determined  to  have  their  wagon-way  altered  to  a  loco- 
motive railroad.  The  result  of  the  working  of  the  Killingworth 
Railway  had  been  so  satisfactory  that  they  resolved  to  adopt  the 
same  system.  One  reason  why  an  experiment  so  long  continued 
and  so  successful  as  that  at  Killingworth  should  have  been  so 
slow  in  producing  results  perhaps  was,  that  to  lay  down  a  rail- 
way and  furnish  it  with  locomotives,  or  fixed  engines  where  nec- 
essary, required  a  very  large  capital,  beyond  the  means  of  ordi- 
nary coal-owners ;  while  the  small  amount  of  interest  felt  in  rail- 
ways by  the  general  public,  and  the  supposed  impracticability  of 
working  them  to  a  profit,  as  yet  prevented  the  ordinary  capitalists 
from  venturing  their  money  in  the  promotion  of  such  undertak- 
ings. The  Hetton  Coal  Company  were,  however,  possessed  of 

*  The  iron  wheels  of  this  engine  were  afterward  removed,  and  replaced  with  wood- 
en wheels,  when  it  was  again  put  upon  the  road,  and  continued  working  until  quite 
recently.  Its  original  cost  was  £750.  It  was  sold  in  1848  for  £13,  and  broken  np  as 
old  materials. 


208  DIFFICULTIES  OF  THE  HETTON  RAILWAY.      [PAET  II. 

adequate  means,  and  the  local  reputation  of  the  Killingworth 
engine- wright  pointed  him  out  as  the  man  best  calculated  to  lay 
out  their  line  and  superintend  their  works.  They  accordingly 
invited  him  to  act  as  the  engineer  of  the  proposed  railway.  Be- 
ing in  the  service  of  the  Killingworth  Company,  Stephenson  felt 
it  necessary  to  obtain  their  permission  to  enter  upon  this  new 
work.  This  was  at  once  granted.  The  best  feeling  existed  be- 
tween him  and  his  employers,  and  they  regarded  it  as  a  compli- 
ment that  their  colliery  engineer  should  be  selected  for  a  work  so 
important  as  the  laying  down  of  the  Hetton  Railway,  which  was 
to  be  the  longest  locomotive  line  that  had,  up  to  that  time,  been 
constructed  in  the  neighborhood.  Stephenson  accepted  the  ap- 
pointment, his  brother  Robert  acting  as  resident  engineer  and 
personally  superintending  the  execution  of  the  works. 

The  Hetton  Railway  extended  from  the  Hetton  Colliery,  situ- 
ated about  two  miles  south  of  Houghton-le-Spring,  to  the  ship- 
places  on  the  banks  of  the  Wear,  near  Sunderland.  Its  length 
was  about  eight  miles ;  and  in  its  course  it  crossed  Warden  Law, 
one  of  the  highest  hills  in  the  'district.  The  character  of  the 
country  forbade  the  construction  of  a  flat  line,  or  one  of  com- 
pararatively  easy  gradients,  except  by  the  expenditure  of  a  much 
larger  capital  than  was  placed  at  Stephenson's  command.  Heavy 
works  could  not  be  executed ;  it  was  therefore  necessary  to  form 
the  line  with  but  little  deviation  from  the  natural  conformation 
of  the  district  which  it  traversed,  and  also  to  adapt  the  mechani- 
cal methods  employed  for  its  working  to  the  character  of  the  gra- 
dients, which  in  some  places  were  necessarily  heavy. 

Although  George  Stephenson  had,  with  every  step  made  to- 
ward its  increased  utility,  become  more  and  more  identified  with 
the  success  of  the  locomotive  engine,  he  did  not  allow  his  enthu- 
siasm to  carry  him  away  into  costly  mistakes.  He  carefully  drew 
the  line  between  the  cases  in  which  the  locomotive  could  be  use- 
fully employed  and  those  in  which  stationary  engines  were  cal- 
culated to  be  more  economical.  This  led  him,  as  in  the  instance 
of  the  Hetton  Railway,  to  execute  lines  through  and  over  rough 
countries,  where  gradients  within  the  powers  of  the  locomotive 
engine  of  that  day  could  not  be  secured,  employing  in  their  stead 
stationary  engines  where  locomotives  were  not  practicable.  In 
the  present  case,  this  course  was  adopted  by  him  most  success- 


CHAP.VIL]       OPENING  OF  THE  HETTON  RAILWAY.  209 

fully.  On  the 'original  Hetton  line  there  were  five  self-acting 
inclines — the  full  wagons  drawing  the  empty  ones  up — and  two 
inclines  worked  by  fixed  reciprocating  engines  of  sixty-horse  pow- 
er each.  The  locomotive  traveling  engine,  or  "  the  iron  horse," 
as  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  then  styled  it,  worked  the  rest 
of  the  line.  On  the  day  of  the  opening  of  the  Hetton  Kailway, 
the  18th  of  November,  1822,  crowds  of  spectators  assembled  from 
all  parts  to  witness  the  first  operations  of  this  ingenious  and  pow- 
erful machinery,  which  was  entirely  successful.  On  that  day  five 
of  Stephenson's  locomotives  were  at  wdrk  upon  the  railway,  un- 
der the  direction  of  his  brother  Kobert ;  and  the  first  shipment  of 
coal  was  then  made  by  the  Hetton  Company  at  their  new  staiths 
on  the  Wear.  The  speed  at  which  the  locomotives  traveled  was 
about  four  miles  an  hour,  and  each  engine  dragged  after  it  a 
train  of  seventeen  wagons  weighing  about  sixty-four  tons. 

While  thus  advancing  step  by  step — attending  to  the  business 
of  the  Killingworth  Colliery,  and  laying  out  railways  in  the 
neighborhood — he  was  carefully  watching  over  the  education  of 
his  son.  We  have  already  seen  that  Kobert  was  sent  to  school  at 
Newcastle,  where  he  remained  about  four  years.  While  Kobert 
was  at  school,  his  father,  as  usual,  made  his  son's  education  in- 
strumental to  his  own.  He  entered  him  a  member  of  the  New- 
castle Literary  and  Philosophical  Institute,  the  subscription  to 
which  was  three  guineas  a  year.  Kobert  spent  much  of  his  leis- 
ure hours  there,  reading  and  studying ;  and  when  he  went  home 
in  the  afternoons,  he  was  accustomed  to  carry  home  with  him  a 
volume  of  the  "  Repertory  of  Arts  and  Sciences,"  or  of  some 
work  on  practical  science,  which  furnished  the  subject  of  inter- 
esting reading  and  discussio*  in  the  evening  hours.  Both  father 
and  son  were  always  ready  to  acknowledge  the  great  advantages 
they  had  derived  from  the  use  of  so  excellent  a  library  of  books ; 
and,  toward  the  close  of  his  life,  the  latter,  in  recognition  of  his 
debt  of  gratitude  to  the  institution,  contributed  a  large  sum  for 
the  purpose  of  clearing  off  the  debt,  but  conditional  on  the  an- 
imal subscription  being  reduced  to  a  guinea,  in  order  that  the 
usefulness  of  the  Institute  might  be  extended. 

KobeVt  left  school  in  the  summer  of  1819,  and  was  put  appren- 
tice to  Mr.  Nicholas  Wood,  the  head  viewer  at  Killingworth,  to 
learn  the  business  of  the  colliery.  He  served  in  that  capacity  for 
O 


210        ROBER  T  STEPHENSON  VIE  WERS  APPRENTICE.  [PART  II. 

about  three  years,  during  which  time  he  became  familiar  with 
most  departments  of  underground  work.  His  occupation  was 
not  unattended  with  peril,  as  the  following  incident  will  show. 
Though  the  use  of  the  Geordy  lamp  had  become  general  in  the 
Killingworth  pits,  and  the  workmen  were  bound,  under  a  penalty 
of  half  a  crown,  not  to  use  a  naked  candle,  it  was  difficult  to  en- 
force the  rule,  and  even  the  masters  themselves  occasionally  broke 
it.  One  day  Nicholas  Wood,  the  head  viewer, 'Moodie,  the  under 
viewer,  and  Kobert  Stephenson,  were  proceeding  along  one  of  the 
galleries,  Wood  with  a  naked  candle  in  his  hand,  and  Robert  fol- 
lowing him  with  a  lamp.  They  came  to  a  place  where  a  fall  of 
stones  from  the  roof  had  taken  place,  on  which  Wood,  who  was 
first,  proceeded  to  clamber  over  the  stones,  holding  high  the  naked 
candle.  He  had  nearly  reached  the  summit  of  the  heap,  when 
the  fire-damp,  which  had  accumulated  in  the  hollow  of  the  roof, 
exploded,  and  instantly  the  whole  party  were  blown  down,  and  the 
lights  extinguished.  They  were  a  mile  from  the  shaft,  and  quite 
in  the  dark.  There  was  a  rush  of  the  work-people  from  all  quar- 
ters toward  the  shaft,  for  it  was  feared  that  the  fire  might  extend 
to  more  dangerous  parts  of  the  pit,  where,  if  the  gas  had  exploded, 
every  soul  in  the  mine  must  inevitably  have  perished.  Robert 
Stephenson  and  Moodie,  on  the  first  impulse,  ran  back  at  full 
speed  along  the  dark  gallery  leading  to  the  shaft,  coming  into  col- 
lision, on  their  way,  with  the  hind  quarters  of  a  horse  stunned  by 
the  explosion.  When  they  had  gone  half  way,  Moodie  halted, 
and  bethought  him  of  Nicholas  Wood.  "  Stop,  laddie !"  said  he 
to  Robert, "  stop ;  we  maim  gang  back  and  seek  the  maister."  So 
they  retraced  their  steps.  Happily,  no  farther  explosion  took 
place.  They  found  the  master  lying  on  the  heap  of  stones,  stun- 
ned and  bruised,  with  his  hands  severely  burnt.  They  led  him  to 
the  bottom  of  the  shaft ;  and  he  afterward  took  care  not  to  ven- 
ture into  the  dangerous  parts  of  the  mine  without  the  protection 
of  a  Geordy  lamp. 

The  time  that  Robert  spent  at  Killingworth  as  viewer's  appren- 
tice was  of  advantage  both  to  his  father  and  himself.  The  even- 
ings were  generally  devoted  to  reading  and  study,  the  two  from 
this  time  working  together  as  friends  and  co-laborers.  $ne  who 
used  to  drop  in  at  the  cottage  of  an  evening  well  remembers  the 
animated  and  eager  discussions  which  on  some  occasions  took 


CHAP.  VH.]  ROBERTS  PURSUITS  A  T  KILLING  WORTH.  211 

place,  more  especially  with  reference  to  the  growing  powers  of 
the  locomotive  engine.  The  son  was  even  more  enthusiastic  than 
his  father  on  the  subject.  Robert  would  suggest  numerous  alter- 
ations and  improvements  in  detail.  His  father,  on  the  contrary, 
would  offer  every  possible  objection,  defending  the  existing  ar- 
rangements— proud,  nevertheless,  of  his  son's  suggestions,  and  oft- 
en warmed  and  excited  by  his  brilliant  anticipations  of  the  ulti- 
mate triumph  of  the  locomotive. 

These  discussions  probably  had  considerable  influence  in  induc- 
ing Stephenson  to  take  the  next  important  step  in  the  education 
of  his  son.  Although  Robert,  who  was  only  nineteen  years  of  age, 
was  doing  well,  and  was  certain,  at  the  expiration  of  his  appren- 
ticeship, to  rise  to  a  higher  position,  his  father  was  not  satisfied 
with  the  amount  of  instruction  which  he  had  as  yet  given  him. 
Remembering  the  disadvantages  under  which  he  had  himself  la- 
bored through  his  ignorance  of  practical  chemistry  during  his  in- 
vestigations connected  with  the  safety-lamp,  more  especially  with 
reference  to  the  properties  of  gas,  as  well  as  in  the  course  of  his 
experiments  with  the  object  of  improving  the  locomotive  engine, 
he  determined  to  furnish  his  son  with  a  better  scientific  culture 
than  he  had  yet  attained.  He  also  believed  that  a  proper  train- 
ing in  technical  science  was  indispensable  to  success  in  the  higher 
walks  of  the  engineer's  profession,  and  he  determined  to  give 
Robert  the  education,  in  a  certain  degree^  which  he  so  much  de- 
sired for  himself.  He  would  thus,  he  knew,  secure  an  able  co- 
worker  in  the  elaboration  of  the  great  ideas  now  looming  before 
him,  and  with  their  united  practical  and  scientific  knowledge  he 
probably  felt  that  they  would  be  equal  to  any  enterprise. 

He  accordingly  took  Robert  from  his  labors  as  under  viewer  in 
the  West  Moor  Pit,  and  in  October,  1822,  sent  him  for  a  short 
course  of  instruction  to  the  Edinburg  University.  Robert  was 
furnished  with  letters  of  introduction  to  several  men  of  literary 
eminence  in  Edinburg,  his  father's  reputation  in  connection  with 
the  safety-lamp  being  of  service  to  him  in  this  respect.  He  lodged 
in  Drummond  Street,  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  college, 
and  attended  the  Chemical  Lectures  of  Dr.  Hope,  the  Natural 
Philosophy  Lectures  of  Sir  John  Leslie,  and  the  Natural  History 
Class  of  Professor  Jameson.  He  also  devoted  several  evenings 
in  each  week  to  the  study  of  practical  Chemistry  under  Dr.  John 


212  ROBERT  STEPHENSON  AT  EDINBURG.  [PART  II. 

Murray,  himself  one  of  the  numerous  designers  of  a  safety-lamp. 
He  took  careful  notes  of  the  lectures,  which  he  copied  out  at 
night  before  he  went  to  bed,  so  that,  when  he  returned  to  Killing- 
worth,  he  might  read  them  over  to  his  father.  He  afterward  had 
the  notes  bound  up  and  placed  in  his  library. 

Long  years  after,  when  conversing  with  Thomas  Harrison,  C.E., 
at  his  house  in  Gloucester  Square,  he  rose  from  his  seat  and  took 
down  a  volume  from  the  shelves.  Mr.  Harrison  observed  that  the 
book  was  in  MS.,  neatly  written  out.  "  What  have  we  here  ?"  he 
asked.  The  answer  was, "  When  I  went  to  college,  I  knew  the 
difficulty  my  father  had  in  collecting  the  funds  to  send  me  there. 
Before  going  I  studied  short-hand ;  while  at  Edinburg  I  took  down 
verbatim  every  lecture ;  and  in  the  evenings,  before  I  went  to  bed, 
I  transcribed  those  lectures  word  for  word.  You  see  the  result 
in  that  range  of  books."  From  this  it  will  be  observed  that  the 
maxim  of  "Like  father,  like  son,"  was  one  that  strictly  applied  to 
the  Stephensons. 

Robert  was  not  without  the  pleasure  of  social  intercourse  either 
during  his  stay  at  Edinburg.  Among  the  letters  of  introduction 
which  he  took  with  him  was  one  to  Robert  Bald,  the  mining  en- 
gineer, which  proved  of  much  service  to  him.  "  I  remember  Mr. 
Bald  very  well,"  he  said  on  one  occasion,  when  recounting  his 
reminiscences  of  his  Edinburg  college  life.  "He  introduced  me 
to  Dr.  Hope,  Dr.  Murray,  and  several  of  the  distinguished  men  of 
the  North.  Bald  was  the  Buddie  of  Scotland.  He  knew  my  fa- 
ther from  having  visited  the  pits  at  Killingworth,  with  the  object 
of  describing  the  system  of  working  them  in  his  article  intended 
for  the  '  Edinburg  Encyclopaedia.'  A  strange  adventure  befell 
that  article  before  it  appeared  in  print.  Bald  was  living  at  Al- 
loa  when  he  wrote  it,  and  when  finished  he  sent  it  to  Edinburg 
by  the  hands  of  young  Maxton,  his  nephew,  whom  he  enjoined 
to  take  special  care  of  it,  and  deliver  it  safely  into  the  hands  of 
the  editor.  The  young  man  took  passage  for  New  Haven  by.  one 
of  the  little  steamers  which  then  plied  on  the  Forth ;  but  on  the 
voyage  down  the  Frith  she  struck  upon  a  rock  nearly  opposite 
Queen's  Ferry,  and  soon  sank.  When  the  accident  happened, 
Maxton's  whole  concern  was  about  his  uncle's  article.  He  durst 
not  return  to  Alloa  if  he  lost  it,  and  he  must  not  go  on  to  Edin- 
burg without  it.  So  he  desperately  clung  to  the  chimney  chains 


CHAP.  IV.]  REMINISCENCES.— GEOLOGICAL  EXCURSIONS.       213 

with  the  paper  parcel  under  his  arm,  while  most  of  the  other  pas- 
sengers were  washed  away  and  drowned.  And  there  he  contin- 
ued to  cling  until  rescued  by  some  boatmen,  parcel  and  all,  after 
which  he  made  his  way  to  Edinburg,  and  the  article  duly  ap- 
peared." 

Eeturning  to  the  subject  of  his  life  in  Edinburg,  Robert  con- 
tinued :  "  Besides  taking  me  with  him  to  the  meetings  of  the 
Royal  and  other  societies,  Mr.  Bald  introduced  me  to  a  very 
agreeable  family,  relatives  of  his  own,  at  whose  house  I  spent 

many  pleasant  evenings.  It  was  there  I  met  Jeannie  M . 

She  was  a  bonnie  lass,  and  I,  being  young  and  susceptible,  fairly 
fell  in  love  with  her.  But,  like  most  very  early  attachments, 
mine  proved  evanescent.  Years  passed,  and  I  had  all  but  for- 
gotten Jeannie,  when  one  day  I  received  a  letter  from  her,  from 
which  it  appeared  that  she  was  in  great  distress  through  the  ruin 
of  her  relatives.  I  sent  her  a  sum  of  money,  and  continued  to  do 
so  for  several  years ;  but  the  last  remittance  not  being  acknowl- 
edged, I  directed  my  friend  Sanderson  to  make  inquiries.  I  aft- 
erward found  that  the  money  had  reached  her  at  Portobello  just 
as  she  was  dying,  and  so,  poor  thing,  she  had  been  unable  to  ac- 
knowledge it." 

One  of  the  practical  sciences  in  the  study  of  which  Robert 
Stephenson  took  special  interest  while  at  Edinburg  was  that  of 
geology.  The  situation  of  the  city,  in  the  midst  of  a  district  of 
highly  interesting  geological  formation,  easily  accessible  to  pedes- 
trians, is  indeed  most  favorable  to  the  pursuit  of  such  a  study ; 
and  it  was  the  practice  of  Professor  Jameson  frequently  to  head 
a  band  of  his  pupils,  armed  with  hammers,  chisels,  and  clinome- 
ters, and  take  them  with  him  on  a  long  ramble  into  the  country, 
for  the  purpose  of  teaching  them  habits  of  observation,  and  read- 
ing to  them  from  the  open  book  of  Nature  itself.  The  professor 
was  habitually  grave  and  taciturn,  but  on  such  occasions  he  would 
relax  and  even  become  genial.  For  his  own  special  science  he 
had  an  almost  engrossing  enthusiasm,  which  on  such  occasions  he 
did  not  fail  to  inspire  into  his  pupils,  who  thus  not  only  got  their 
knowledge  in  the  pleasantest  possible  way,  but  also  fresh  air  and 
exercise  in  the  midst  of  glorious  scenery  and  in  joyous  company. 

At  the  close  of  this  session,  the  professor  took  with  him  a  se- 
lect body  of  his  pupils  on  an  excursion  along  the  Great  Glen  of 


214  EXCURSION.— WINS  A  PRIZE.  [PART  II. 

the  Highlands,  in  the  line  of  the  Caledonian  Canal,  and  Robert 
formed  one  of  the  party.  They  passed  under  the  shadow  of  Ben 
Nevis,  examined  the  famous  old  sea-margins  known  as  the  "  par- 
allel roads  of  Glen  Roy,"  and  extended  their  journey  as  far  as 
Inverness,  the  professor  teaching  the  young  men,  as  they  trav- 
eled, how  to  observe  in  a  mountain  country.  Not  long  before 
his  death,  Robert  Stephenson  spoke  in  glowing  terms  of  the  great 
pleasure  and  benefit  which  he  had  derived  from  that  interesting 
excursion.  "  I  have  traveled  far,  and  enjoyed  much,"  he  said, 
"  but  that  delightful  botanical  and  geological  tour  I  shall  never 
forget ;  and  I  am  just  about  to  start  in  the  Titania  for  a  trip 
round  the  east  coast  of  Scotland,  returning  south  through  the 
Caledonian  Canal,  to  refresh  myself  with  the  recollection  of  that 
first  and  brightest  tour  of  my  life." 

Toward  the  end  of  the  summer  the  young  student  returned  to 
Killingworth  to  re-enter  upon  the  active  business  of  life.  The 
six  months'  study  had  cost  his  father  £80 — a  considerable  sum  to 
him  in  those  days ;  but  he  was  amply  repaid  by  the  additional 
scientific  culture  which  his  son  had  acquired,  and  the  evidence  of 
ability  and  industry  which  he  was  enabled  to  exhibit  in  a  prize 
for  mathematics  which  he  had  won  at  the  University. 


MOOR  PIT,  KILLINGWOBTH. 


We  may  here  add-that  by  this  time  George  Stephenson,  after 
remaining  a  widower  fourteen  years,  had  married,  in  1820,  his 
second  wife,  Elizabeth  Hindmarsh,  the  daughter  of  a  respectable 
farmer  at  Black  Callerton.  She  was  a  woman  of  excellent  char- 


CHAP.  VII.]   GEORGE  STEPHENSON'S  SECOND  MARRIAGE.       215 

acter,  sensible,  and  intelligent,  and  of  a  kindly  and  affectionate 
nature.  George's  son  Robert,  whom  she  loved  as  if  he  had  been 
her  own,  to  the  last  day  of  his  life  spoke  of  her  in  the  highest 
terms ;  and  it  is  unquestionable  that  she  contributed  in  no  small 
degree  to  the  happiness  of  her  husband's  home. 

The  story  was  for  some  time  current  that,  while  living  at  Black 
Callerton  in  the  capacity  of  engine-man,  twenty  years  before, 
George  had  made  love  to  Miss  Hindmarsh,  and,  failing  to  obtain 
her  hand,  in  despair  he  had  married  Paterson's  servant.  But  the 
author  has  been  assured  by  Mr.  Thomas  Hindmarsh,  of  Newcastle, 
the  lady's  brother,  that  the  story  was  mere  idle  gossip,  and  alto- 
gether without  foundation. 


FIRST  PUBLIC  RAIL  WAY  A  CT.  [PART  II. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

GEORGE  6TEPHENSON  ENGINEER  OF  THE   STOCKTON  AND  DAKLING- 
TON   RAILWAY. 

IT  is  not  improbable  that  the  slow  progress  made  by  railways 
in  public  estimation  was,  in  a  considerable  measure,  due  to  the 
comparative  want  of  success  which  had  attended  the  first  proj- 
ects. We  do  not  refer  to  the  tram-roads  and  railroads  which 
connected  the  collieries  and  iron-works  with  the  shipping-places. 
These  were  found  convenient  and  economical,  and  their  use  be- 
came general  in  Durham  and  Northumberland,  in  South  Wales, 
in  Scotland,  and  throughout  the  colliery  districts.  But  none  of 
these  were  public  railways.  Though  the  Merthyr  Tydvil  Tram- 
road,  the  Sirhoway  Railroad,  and  others  in  South  Wales,  were 
constructed  under  the  powers  of  special  acts,*  they  were  exclu- 
sively used  for  the  private  purposes  of  the  coal-owners  and  iron- 
masters at  whose  expense  they  were  made. 

The  first  public  Railway  Act  was  that  passed  in  1801,  author- 
izing the  construction  of  a  line  from  Wandsworth  to  Croydon, 
under  the  name  of  "  The  Surrey  Iron  Railway."  By  a  subse- 
quent act,  powers  were  obtained  to  extend  the  line  to  Reigate, 
with  a  branch  to  Godstone.  The  object  of  this  railway  was  to 
furnish  a  more  ready  means  for  the  transport  of  coal  and  mer- 
chandise from  the  Thames  to  the  districts  of  south  London,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  enable  the  lime-burners  and  proprietors  of 
stone-quarries  to  send  the  lime  and  stone  to  London.  With  this 
object,  the  railroad  was  connected  with  a  dock  or  basin  in  Wands- 
worth  Creek  capable  of  containing  thirty  barges,  with  an  entrance 
lock  into  the  Thames. 

The  works  had  scarcely  been  commenced  ere  the  company  got 
into  difficulties,  but  eventually  26  miles  of  iron-way  were  con- 

*  The  act  for  constructing  the  Merthyr  Tydvil  Tram-road  was  obtained  from  Par- 
liament as  early  as  1794 ;  that  for  the  Sirhoway  Railroad  in  1801;  the  Carmarthen- 
shire Railroad  was  sanctioned  in  the  same  year ;  and  the  Oystermouth  Railway  in 
1803. 


CHAP. VIII.]    FAILURE  OF  THE  CROYD ON  RAILWAY.  217 

structed  and  opened  for  traffic.  Any  person  was  then  at  liberty 
to  put  wagons  on  the  line,  and  to  carry  goods  within  the  pre- 
scribed rates,  the  wagons  being  worked  by  horses,  mules,  and 
donkeys.  Notwithstanding  the  very  sanguine  expectations  which 
were  early  formed  as  to  the  paying  qualities  of  this  railway,  it 
never  realized  any  adequate  profit  to  the  owners.  But  it  contin- 
ued to  be  worked,  principally  by  donkeys  for  the  sake  of  cheap- 
ness, down  to  the  passing  of  the  act  for  constructing  the  London 
and  Brighton  line  in  1837,  when  the  proprietors  disposed  of  their 
undertaking  to  the  new  company.  The  line  was  accordingly  dis- 
mantled ;  the  stone  blocks  and  rails  were  taken  up  and  sold ;  and 
all  that  remains  of  the  Wandsworth,  Croydon,  and  Merstham  Rail- 
way is  the  track  still  observable  to  the  south  of  Croydon,  along 
Smitham  Bottom,  nearly  parallel  with  the  line  of  the  present 
Brighton  Railway,  and  an  occasional  cutting  and  embankment, 
which  still  mark  the  route  of  this  first  public  railway. 

The  want  of  success  of  this  undertaking  doubtless  had  the  ef- 
fect of  deterring  projectors  from  embarking  in  any  similar  en- 
terprise. If  a  line  of  the  sort  could  not  succeed  near  London,  it 
was  thought  improbable  that  it  should  succeed  any  where  else. 
The  Croydon  and  Merstham  line  was  a  beacon  to  warn  capital- 
ists against  embarking  in  railways,  and  many  years  passed  before 
another  was  ventured  upon. 

Sir  RichardfPhillips  was  one  of  the  few  who  early  recognized 
the  important  uses  of  the  locomotive  and  its  employment  on  a 
large  scale  for  the  haulage  of  goods  and  passengers  by  railway. 
In  his  "  Morning  Walk  to  Kew"  he  crossed  the  line  of  the  Wands- 
worth  and  Croydon  Railway,  when  the  idea  seems  to  have  oc- 
curred to  him,  as  it  afterwards  did  to  Thomas  Gray,  that  in  the 
locomotive  and  the  railway  were  to  be  found  the  germs  of  a 
great  and  peaceful  social  revolution : 

"  I  fcmnd  delight,"  said  Sir  Richard,  in  his  book  published  in  1813, 
"  in  witnessing  at  Wandsworth  the  economy  of  horse  labor  on  the 
iron  railway.  Yet  a  heavy  sigh  escaped  me  as  I  thought  of  the  in- 
conceivable millions  of  money  which  have  been  spent  about  Malta, 
four  or  five  of  which  might  have  been  the  means  of  extending 
double  lines  of  iron  railway  from  London  to  Edinburg,  Glasgow, 
Holyhead,  Milford,  Falmouth,  Yarmouth,  Dover,  and  Portsmouth. 
A  reward  of  a  single  thousand  would  have  supplied  coaches  and 


218  ILL  SUCCESS  OF  RAILWAYS.  [PART  H. 

other  vehicles,  of  various  degrees  of  speed,  with  the  best  tackle  for 
readily  turning  out ;  and  we  might,  ere  this,  have  witnessed  our 
mail-coaches  running  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour  drawn  by  a 
single  horse,  or  impelled  fifteen  miles  an  hour  by  Blenkinsop's 
steam-engine.  Such  would  have  been  a  legitimate  motive  for  over- 
stepping the  income  of  a  nation,  and  the  completion  of  so  great  and 
useful  a  work  would  have  afforded  rational  ground  for  public  tri- 
umph in  general  jubilee." 

There  was,  however,  as  yet,  no  general  recognition  of  the  ad- 
vantages either  of  railways  or  locomotives.  The  government  of 
this  country  never  leads  in  any  work  of  public  enterprise,  and  is 
usually  rather  a  drag  upon  industrial  operations  than  otherwise. 
As  for  the  general  public,  it  was  enough  for  them  that  the  "Wands- 
worth  and  Croydon  Railway  did  not  pay. 

Mr.  Tredgold,  in  his  "  Practical  Treatise  on  Railroads  and  Car- 
riages," published  in  1825,  observes: 

"-Up  to  this  period  railways  have  been  employed  with  success 
only  in  the  conveyance  of  heavy  mineral  products,  and  for  short 
distances  where  immense  quantities  were  to  be  conveyed.  In  the 
few  instances  where  they  have  been  intended  for  the  general  pur- 
poses of  trade,  they  have  never  answered  the  expectations  of  their 
projectors.  But  this  seems  to  have  arisen  altogether  from  follow- 
ing too  closely  the  models  adopted  for  the  conveyance  of  minerals, 
such  modes  of  forming  and  using  railways  not  being  at  all  adapted 
for  the  general  purposes  of  trade." 

The  ill  success  of  railways  was  generally  recognized.  Joint- 
stock  companies  for  all  sorts  of  purposes  were  formed  during  the 
joint-stock  mania  of  1821,  but  few  projectors  were  found  daring 
enough  to  propose  schemes  so  unpromising  as  railways.  Hence 
nearly  twenty  years  passed  between  the  construction  of  the  first 
and  the  second  public  railway  in  England ;  and  this  brings 
us  to  the  projection  of  the  Stockton  and  Darlington,  which 
may  be  regarded  as  the  parent  public  locomotive  railway  in  the 
kingdom. 

The  district  lying  to  the  west  of  Darlington,  in  the  county  of 
Durham,  is  one  of  the  richest  mineral  fields  of  the  North.  Vast 
stores  of  coal  underlie  the  Bishop  Auckland  Yalley,  and  from  an 
early  period  it  was  felt  to  be  an  exceedingly  desirable  object  to 
open  up  new  communications  to  enable  the  article  to  be  sent  to 


CHAP.  Vm.]  TEES  NA  VIGA TION  IMPROVED.  219 

market,  But  the  district  lay  a  long  way  from  the  sea,  and,  the 
Tees  being  unnavigable,  there  was  next  to  no  vend  for  the  Bishop 
Auckland  coal. 

It  is  easy  to  understand,  therefore,  how  the  desire  to  obtain  an 
outlet  for  this  coal  for  land  sale,  as  well  as  for  its  transport  to 
London  by  sea,  should  have  early  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
coal-owners  in  the  Bishop  Auckland  district.  The  first  idea  that 
found  favor  was  the  construction  of  a  canal.  About  a  century 
ago,  in  1766,  shortly  after  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater's  Canal  had 
been  opened  between  Worsley  and  Manchester,  a  movement  was 
set  on  foot  at  Darlington  with  the  view  of  having  the  country 
surveyed  between  that  place  and  Stockton-on-Tees. 

Brindley  was  requested  to  lay  out  the  proposed  line  of  canal ; 
but  he  was  engrossed  at  the  time  by  the  prosecution  of  the  works 
on  the  Duke's  Canal  to  Liverpool,  and  Whitworth,  his  pupil  and 
assistant,  was  employed  in  his  stead ;  George  Dixon,  grandfather 
of  John  Dixon,  engineer  of  the  future  Stockton  and  Darlington 
Eailway,  taking  an  active  part  in  the  survey.  In  October,  1768, 
Whitworth  presented  his  plan  of  the  proposed  canal  from  Stock- 
ton by  Darlington  to  Winston,  and  in  the  following  year,  to  give 
weight  to  the  scheme,  Brindley  concurred  with  him  in  a  joint 
report  as  to  the  plan  and  estimate. 

Nothing  was,  however,  done  in  the  matter.  Enterprise  was 
slow  to  move.  Stockton  waited  for  Darlington,  and  Darlington 
waited  for  Stockton,  but  neither  stirred  until  twenty  years  later, 
when  Stockton  began  to  consider  the  propriety  of  straightening 
the  Tees  below  that  town,  and  thereby  shortening  and  improv- 
ing the  navigation.  When  it  became  known  that  some  engineer- 
ing scheme  was  afoot  at  Stockton,  that  indefatigable  writer  of 
prospectuses  and  drawer  of  plans,  Ralph  Dodd,  the  first  projector 
of  a  tunnel  under  the  Thames,  the  first  projector  of  the  Water- 
loo Bridge,  and  the  first  to  bring  a  steam-boat  from  Glasgow 
into  the  Thames,  addressed  the  Mayor  and  Corporation  of  Stock- 
ton in  1796  on  the  propriety  of  forming  a  line  of  internal  navi- 
gation by  Darlington  and  Staindrop  to  Winston.  Still  nothing 
was  done.  Four  years  later,  another  engineer,  George  Atkinson, 
reported  in  favor  of  a  water-way  to  connect  the  then  projected 
Great  Trunk  Canal,  from  about  Boroughbridge  to  Piersebridge, 
with  the  Tees  above  Yarm. 


£20  CANAL  versus  RAILWAY.  [PART  II. 

At  length,  in  1808,  the  Tees  Navigation  Company,  slow  in 
their  movements,  obtained  an  act  enabling  them  to  make  the 
short  cut  projected  seventeen  years  before,  and  two  years  later 
the  cut  was  opened,  and  celebrated  by  the  inevitable  dinner. 
The  Stockton  people,  who  adopted  as  the  motto  of  their  company 
"Meliora  speramus,"  held  a  public  meeting  after  the  dinner  to 
meditate  upon  and  discuss  the  better  tilings  to  come.  They  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  inquire  into  the  practicability  and  advan- 
tages of  forming  a  railway  or  canal  from  Stockton  by  Darling- 
ton to  Winston.  Here,  then,  in  1810,  we  have  the  first  glimpse 
of  the  railway ;  but  it  was  long  before  the  idea  germinated  and 
bore  fruit.  The  collieries  must  be  got  at  to  make  the  new  cut  a 
success,  but  how  for  a  long  time  remained  the  question. 

Sixteen  months  passed,  and  the  committee  at  Stockton  went  to 
sleep.  But  it  came  up  again,  and  this  time  at  Darlington,  with 
Edward  Pease  as  one  of  the  members.  The  Darlington  commit- 
tee met  and  made  their  report,  but  they  could  not  decide  between 
the  respective  merits  of  a  railroad  and  a  canal.  It  was  felt  that 
either  would  be  of  great  advantage.  To  settle  the  question,  they 
determined  to  call  the  celebrated  engineer,  John  Rennie,  to  their 
aid,  and  he  was  ready  with  his  report  in  1813.  His  report  was 
not  published,  but  it  is  understood  that  he  was  in  favor  of  a  canal 
on  Brindley  and  Whitworth's  line,  though  he  afterward  inclined 
to  a  tram-road.  Still  nothing  was  done.  "War  was  on  foot  in 
Europe,  and  enterprise  was  every  where  dormant.  The  scheme 
must  therefore  wait  the  advent  of  peace.  At  length  peace  came, 
and  with  it  a  revival  of  former  projects. 

At  Newcastle,  a  plan  was  set  on  foot  for  connecting  the  Tyne 
with  the  Solway  Frith  by  a  canal.  A  county  meeting  was  held 
on  the  subject  in  August,  1817,  under  the  presidency  of  the  high 
sheriff.  Previous  to  this  time,  Sir  John  Swinburne  had  stood  up 
for  a  railway  in  preference  to  a  canal ;  but  when  the  meeting 
took  place,  the  opinion  of  those  present  was  in  favor  of  a  canal 
— Mr.  William  Armstrong  (father  of  the  present  Sir  William)  be- 
ing one  of  the  most  zealous  advocates  of  the  water-road.  Yet 
there  were  even  then  railroads  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
Newcastle,  at  Wylam  and  Killingworth,  which  had  been  success- 
fully and  economically  worked  by  the  locomotive  for  years  past, 
but  which  the  Northumbrians  seem  completely  to  have  ignored. 


REVIVED  MOVEMENT  FOR  A  CANAL.  221 

The  public  head  is  usually  very  thick,  and  it  is  difficult  to  ham- 
mer a  new  idea  into  it.  Canals  were  established  methods  of  con- 
veyance, and  were  every  where  recognized;  whereas  railways 
were  new  things,  and  were  struggling  hard  to  gain  a  footing. 
Besides,  the  only  public  railway  in  England,  the  Wandsworth, 
Croydon,  and  Merstham,  had  proved  a  commercial  failure,  and 
was  held  up  as  a  warning  to  all  speculators  in  tram-ways.  But, 
though  the  Newcastle  meeting  approved  of  a  canal  in  preference 
to  a  railway  from  the  Tyne  to  the  Solway,  nothing  was  really 
done  to  promote  the  formation  of  either. 

The  movement  in  favor  of  a  canal  was  again  revived  at  Stock- 
ton. A  requisition,  very  numerously  signed  by  persons  of  influ- 
ence in  South  Durham,  was  presented  to  the  Mayor  of  Stockton 
in  May,  1818, requesting  him  to  convene  a  public  meeting  "to 
consider  the  expediency  of  forming  a  canal  for  the  conveyance 
of  coal,  lime,  etc.,  from  Evenwood  Bridge,  near  West  Auckland, 
to  the  Kiver  Tees,  upon  a  plan  recently  made  by  Mr.  George 
Leatham,  engineer."  Among  the  names  attached  to  the  petition 
we  find  those  of  Edward,  John,  and  Thomas  Pease,  and  John 
Dixon,  Darlington.  They  were  doubtless  willing  to  pull  witn 
any  party  that  would  open  up  a  way,  whether  by  rail  or  by  wa- 
ter, between  the  Bishop  Auckland  coal-field  and  Stockton,  wheth- 
er the  line  passed  through  Darlington  or  not. 

An  enthusiastic  meeting  was  held  at  Stockton,  and  a  commit- 
tee was  appointed,  by  whom  it  was  resolved  to  apply  to  Parlia- 
ment for  an  act  to  make  the  intended  canal  "  if  funds  are  forth- 
coming." Never  was  there  greater  virtue  in  an  if.  Funds  were 
not  forthcoming ;  the  project  fell  through,  and  a  great  blunder 
was  prevented.  When  the  Stockton  men  had  discussed  and  re- 
solved without  any  practical  result,  the  leading  men  of  Darling- 
ton took  up  the  subject  by  themselves,  determined,  if  possible,  to 
bring  it  to  some  practical  issue.  In  September,  1818,  they  met 
under  the  presidency  of  Thomas  Meynell,  Esq.  Mr.  Overton, 
who  had  laid  down  several  coal  railways  in  Wales,  was  consult- 
ed, and,  after  surveying  the  district  between  the  Bishop  Auck- 
land coal-field  and  the  Tees,  sent  in  his  report.  Mr.  Kennie  also 
was  again  consulted.  Both  engineers  gave  their  opinion  in  favor 
of  a  railway  by  Darlington  in  preference  to  a  canal  by  Auckland, 
"  whether  taken  as  a  line  for  the  exportation  of  coal  or  as  one 


222  ENERGETIC  SUPPORT  OF  MR.  PEASE.  [PART  II. 

for  a  local  trade."  The  committee  accordingly  reported  in  favor 
of  the  railway. 

It  is  curious  now  to  look  back  at  the  modest  estimate  of  traffic 
formed  by  the  committee.  They  considered  that  the  export  trade 
in  coal  "  might  be  taken,  perhaps,  at  10,000  tons  a  year,  which  is 
about  one  cargo  a  week !"  It  was  intended  to  haul  the  coal  by 
horse-power ;  a  subsequent  report  stating  "  on  undoubted  author- 
ity" that  one  horse  of  moderate  power  could  easily  draw  down- 
ward on  the  railway,  between  Darlington  and  Stockton,  about  ten 
tons,  and  upward  about  four  tons  of  loading,  exclusively  of  the 
empty  wagons.  No  allusion  was  made  to  passengers  in  any  of 
the  reports;  nor  did  the  committee  at  first  contemplate  the  ac- 
commodation of  traffic  of  this  description. 

A  survey  of  the  line  was  then  ordered,  and  steps  were  taken  to 
apply  to  Parliament  for  the  necessary  powers  to  construct  the 
railway.  But  the  controversy  was  not  yet  at  an  end.  Stockton 
stood  by  its  favorite  project  of  a  canal,  and  would  not  subscribe 
a  farthing  toward  the  projected  railway ;  but  neither  did  it  sub- 
scribe toward  the  canal.  The  landlords,  the  road  trustees,  the 
carriers,  the  proprietors  of  donkeys  (by  whom  coals  were  princi- 
pally carried  for  inland  sale),  were  strenuously  opposed  to  the  new 
project ;  while  the  general  public,  stupid  and  skeptical,  for  the 
most  part  stood  aloof,  quoting  old  saws  and  keeping  their  money 
in  their  pockets. 

Several  energetic  men,  however,  were  now  at  the  head  of  the 
Stockton  and  Darlington  Kailway  project,  and  determined  to 
persevere  with  it.  Among  these,  the  Peases  were  the  most  zeal- 
ous. Edward  Pease  might  be  regarded  as  the  back-bone  of  the 
concern.  Opposition  did  not  daunt  him,  nor  failure  discourage 
him.  When  apparently  overthrown  and  prostrate,  he  would  rise 
again  like  Antaeus,  stronger  than  before,  and  renew  his  efforts 
with  increased  vigor.  He  had  in  him  the  energy  and  persever- 
ance of  many  men.  One  who  knew  him  in  1818  said,  "He  was 
a  man  who  could  see  a  hundred  years  ahead."  When  the  author 
last  saw  him  in  1854,  a  few  years  before  his  death,  Mr.  Pease  was 
in  his  eighty-eighth  year ;  yet  he  still  possessed  the  hopefulness 
and  mental  vigor  of  a  man  in  his  prime.  Still  sound  in  health,  his 
eye  had  not  lost  its  brilliancy,  nor  his  cheek  its  color,  and  there  was 
an  elasticity  in  his  step  which  younger  men  might  have  envied. 


CHAP.  VIII.]  A  COMPANY  FORMED.  223 

In  getting  up  a  company  for  surveying  and  forming  a  railway, 
Mr.  Pease  had  great  difficulties  to  encounter.    The  people  of  the 


EDWARD  PEASR. 


neighborhood  spoke  of  it  as  a  ridiculous  undertaking,  and  pre- 
dicted that  it  would  be  ruinous  to  all  concerned  in  it.  Even  those 
most  interested  in  the  opening  up  of  new  markets  for  the  sale  of 
their  coal  were  indifferent,  if  not  hostile.  Mr.  Pease  nevertheless 
pei-severed  in  the  formation  of  a  company,  and  he  induced  many 
of  his  friends  and  relations  to  follow  his  example.  The  Kichard- 
sons  and  Backhouses,  members,  like  himself,  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  influenced  by  his  persuasion,  united  themselves  with  him ; 
and  so  many  of  the  same  denomination  (having  confidence  in 
these  influential  Darlington  names)  followed  their  example  and 
subscribed  for  shares,  that  the  railway  obtained  the  designation, 
which  it  long  retained,  of  "  The  Quakers'  Line." 

The  Stockton  and  Darlington  scheme  had  to  run  the  gauntlet 
of  a  fierce  opposition  in  three  successive  sessions  of  Parliament. 
The  application  of  1818  was  defeated  by  the  Duke  of  Cleveland, 


224 


THE  ACT  OBTAINED. 


[PART  II. 


who  afterward  profited  so  largely  by  the  railway.  The  ground 
of  his  opposition  was  that  the  line  would  interfere  with  one  of 
his  fox-covers,  and  it  was  mainly  through  his  influence  that  the 
bill  was  thrown  out,  but  only  by  a  majority  of  thirteen,  upward 
of  one  hundred  members  having  voted  for  the  bill.  A  nobleman 
said,  when  he  heard  of  the  division, "  Well,  if  the  Quakers  in  these 
times,  when  nobody  knows  any  thing  about  railways,  can  raise 
such  a  phalanx  in  their  support,  I  should  recommend  the  country 
gentlemen  to  be  very  wary  how  they  oppose  them  in  future." 

The  next  year,  in  1819,  an  amended  survey  of  the  line  was 
made,  and,  the  duke's  fox-cover  being  avoided,  his  opposition  was 
thus  averted ;  but,  on  Parliament  becoming  dissolved  on  the  death 
of  George  III.,  the  bill  was  necessarily  suspended  until  another 
session. 

In  the  mean  time  the  local  opposition  to  the  measure  revived, 
and  now  it  was  led  by  the  road  trustees,  who  spread  it  abroad  that 
the  mortgagees  of  the  tolls  arising  from  the  turnpike-road  leading 
from  Darlington  to  "West  Auckland  would  be  seriously  injured 
by  the  formation  of  the  proposed  railway.  On  this,  Edward  Pease 
issued  a  printed  notice,  requesting  any  alarmed  mortgagee  to  ap- 
ply to  the  company's  solicitors  at  Darlington,  who  were  authorized 
to  purchase  their  securities  at  the  prices  originally  given  for  them. 
This  notice  had  the  effect  of  allaying  the  alarm  spread  abroad ; 
and  the  bill,  though  still  strongly  opposed,  passed  both  houses  of 
Parliament  in  1821. 


MAP  OF   STOCKTON  AND   DARLINGTON  BAILWAY. 


The  preamble  of  the  act  sets  forth  the  public  utility  of  the  pro- 


CHAP.  VIIL]  MR  PEASE  ON  RAIL  WA  YS.  225 

posed  line  for  the  conveyance  of  coal  and  other  commodities  from 
the  interior  of  the  comity  of  Durham  to  Stockton  and  the  north- 
ern parts  of  Yorkshire.  Nothing  was  said  about  passengers,  for 
passenger-traffic  was  not  yet  contemplated ;  and  nothing  was  said 
about  locomotives,  as  it  was  at  first  intended  to  work  the  line  en- 
tirely by  horse-power.  The  road  was  to  be  free  to  all  persons 
who  chose  to  place  their  wagons  and  horses  upon  it  for  the  haul- 
age of  coal  and  merchandise,  provided  they  paid  the  tolls  fixed 
by  the  act. 

The  company  were  empowered  to  charge  fourpence  a  ton  per 
mile  for  all  coal  intended  for  land  sale,  but  only  a  halfpenny  a 
ton  per  mile  for  coal  intended  for  shipment  at  Stockton.  This 
latter  proviso  was  inserted  at  the  instance  of  Mr.  Lambton,  after- 
ward Earl  of  Durham,  for  the  express  purpose  of  preventing  the 
line  being  used  in  competition  against  his  coal  loaded  at  Sunder- 
land ;  for  it  was  not  believed  possible  that  coal  could  be  earned 
at  that  low  rate  except  at  a  heavy  loss.  As  it  was,  however,  the 
rate  thus  fixed  by  the  act  eventually  proved  the  vital  element  of 
success  in  the  working  of  the  undertaking. 

While  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway  scheme  was  still 
before  Parliament,  we  find  Edward  Pease  writing  letters  to  a 
York  paper,  urging  the  propriety  of  extending  it  southward  into 
Yorkshire  by  a  branch  from  Croft.  It  is  curious  now  to  look 
back  upon  the  argunlents  by  which  Mr.  Pease  sought  to  influence 
public  opinion  in  favor  of  railways,  and  to  observe  the  very 
modest  anticipations  which  even  its  most  zealous  advocate  enter- 
tained as  to  their  supposed  utility  and  capabilities  : 

"  The  late  improvements  in  the  construction  of  railways,"  Mr. 
Pease  wrote, "  have  rendered  them  much  more  perfect  than  when 
constructed  after  the  old  plan.  To  such  a  degree  of  utility  have 
they  now  been  brought  that  they  may  be  regarded  as  very  little  in- 
ferior to  canals. 

"  If  we  compare  the  railway  with  the  best  lines  of  common  road, 
it  may  be  fairly  stated  that  in  the  case  of  a  level  railway  the  work 
will  be  increased  in  at  least  an  eightfold  degree.  The  best  horse  is 
sufficiently  loaded  with  three  quarters  of  a  ton  on  a  common  road, 
from  the  undulating  line  of  its  draught,  while  on  a  railway  it  is 
calculated  that  a  horse  will  easily  draw  a  load  of  ten  tons.  At 
Lord  Elgin's  works,  Mr.  Stevenson,  the  celebrated  engineer,  states 

P 


226  MR.  PEASE  ON  RAILWAYS.  (TART  II. 

that  he  has  actually  seen  a  horse  draw  twenty-three  tons  thirteen 
cwt.  upon  a  railway  which  was  in  some  parts  level,  and  at  other 
parts  presented  a  gentle  declivity ! 

"  The  formation  of  a  railway,  if  it  creates  no  improvement  in  a 
country,  certainly  bars  none,  as  all  the  former  modes  of  communi- 
cation remain  unimpaired ;  and  the  public  obtain,  at  the  risk  of  the 
subscribers,  another  and  better  mode  of  carriage,  which  it  will  al- 
ways be  to  the  interest  of  the  proprietors  to  make  cheap  and  ser- 
viceable to  the  community. 

"  On  undertakings  of  this  kind,  when  compared  with  canals,  the 
advantages  of  which  (where  an  ascending  or  descending  line  can 
be  obtained)  are  nearly  equal,  it  may  be  remarked  that  public  opin- 
ion is  not  easily  changed  on  any  subject.  It  requires  the  experi- 
ence of  many  years,  sometimes  ages,  to  accomplish  this,  even  in 
cases  which  by  some  may  be  deemed  obvious.  Such  is  the  effect 
of  habit,  and  such  the  aversion  of  mankind  to  any  thing  like  inno- 
vation or  change.  Although  this  is  often  regretted,  yet,  if  the 
principle  be  investigated  in  all  its  ramifications,  it  will  perhaps  be 
found  to  be  one  of  the  most  fortunate  dispositions  of  the  human 
mind. 

"  The  system  of  cast-iron  railways  is  as  yet  to  be  considered  but 
in  its  infancy.  It  will  be  found  to  be  an  immense  improvement  on 
the  common  road,  and  also  on  the  wooden  railway.  It  neither  pre- 
sents the  friction  of  the  tram-way,  nor  partakes  of  the  perishable 
nature  of  the  wooden  railway,  and,  as  regards  utility,  it  may  be 
considered  as  the  medium  between  the  navigable  canal  and  the 
common  road.  We  may  therefore  hope  that  as  this  system  de- 
velops itself,  our  roads  will  be  laid  out  as  much  as  possible  on  one 
level,  and  in  connection  with  the  great  lines  of  communication 
throughout  the  country." 

Such  were  the  modest  anticipations  of  Edward  Pease  respect- 
ing railways  in  the  year  1821.  Ten  years  later,  an  age  of  prog- 
ress, by  comparison,  had  been  effected. 

Some  time  elapsed  before  any  active  steps  were  taken  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  construction  of  the  railway.  Doubts  were  raised 
whether  the  line  was  the  best  that  could  be  adopted  for  the  dis- 
trict, and  the  subscribers  generally  were  not  so  sanguine  about 
the  undertaking  as  to  induce  them  to  press  it  forward. 

One  day,  about  the  end  of  the  year  1821,  two  strangers  knock- 
ed at  the  door  of  Mr.  Pease's  house  in  Darlington,  and  a  message 


CHAP.  VHL]  INTERVIEW  WITH  GEORGE  STEPHENSON.  227 

was  brought  to  him  that  some  persons  from  Killingworth  wanted 
to  speak  with  him.  They  were  invited  in,  on  which  one  of  the 
visitors  introduced  himself  as  Nicholas  Wood,  viewer  at  Killing- 
worth,  and  then  turning  to  his  companion,  he  introduced  him  as 
George  Stephenson,  engine- wright,  of  the  same  place. 

Mr.  Pease  entered  into  conversation  with  his  visitors,  and  was 
soon  told  their  object.  Stephenson  had  heard  of  the  passing  of 
the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Act,  and  desiring  to  increase  his 
railway  experience,  and  also  to  employ  in  some  larger  field  the 
practical  knowledge  he  had  already  acquired,  he  determined  to 
visit  the  known  projector  of  the  undertaking,  with  the  view  of 
being  employed  to  carry  it  out.  He  had  brought  with  him  his 
friend  Wood  for  the  purpose  at  the  same  time  of  relieving  his 
diffidence  and  supporting  his  application. 

Mr.  Pease  liked  the  appearance  of  his  visitor :  "  there  was,"  as 
he  afterward  remarked  when  speaking  of  Stephenson, "  such  an 
honest,  sensible  look  about  him,  and  he  seemed  so  modest  and 
unpretending.  He  spoke  in  the  strong  Northumbrian  dialect  of 
his  district,  and  described  himself  as  '  only  the  engine-wright  at 
Killingworth ;  that's  what  he  was.' " 

Mr.  Pease  soon  saw  that  our  engineer  was  the  very  man  for 
his  purpose.  The  whole  plans  of  the  railway  were  still  in  an  un- 
determined state,  and  Mr.  Pease  was  therefore  glad  to  have  the 
opportunity  of  profiting  by  Stephenson's  experience.  In  the 
course  of  their  conversation,  the  latter  strongly  recommended  a 
railway  in  preference  to  a  tram-road.  They  also  discussed  the 
kind  of  tractive  power  to  be  employed,  Mr.  Pease  stating  that 
the  company  had  based  their  whole  calculations  on  the  employ- 
ment of  horse-power.  "  I  was  so  satisfied,"  said  he  afterward, 
"  that  a  horse  upon  an  iron  road  would  draw  ten  tons  for  one  ton 
on  a  common  road,  that  I  felt  sure  that  before  long  the  railway 
would  become  the  king's  highway." 

But  Mr.  Pease  was  scarcely  prepared  for  the  bold  assertion 
made  by  his  visitor,  that  the  locomotive  engine  with  which  he 
had  been  working  the  Killingworth  Kail  way  for  many  years  past 
was  worth  fifty  horses,  and  that  engines  made  after  a  similar 
plan  would  yet  entirely  supersede  all  horse-power  upon  railroads. 
Stephenson  was  daily  becoming  more  positive  as  to  the  supe- 
riority of  his  locomotive,  and  hence  he  strongly  urged  Mr.  Pease 


228  THE  LINE  RESURVEYED.  [PAST  II. 

to  adopt  it.  "  Come  over  to  Killingworth,"  said  he,  "  and  see 
what  my  engines  can  do ;  seeing  is  believing,  sir."  Mr.  Pease 
accordingly  promised  that  on  some  early  day  he  would  go  over 
to  Killingworth,  and  take  a  look  at  the  wonderful  machine  that 
was  to  supersede  horses. 

The  result  of  the  interview  was,  that  Mr.  Pease  promised  to 
bring  Stephenson's  application  for  the  appointment  of  engineer 
before  the  directors,  and  to  support  it  with  his  influence ;  where- 
on the  two  visitors  prepared  to  take  their  leave,  informing  Mr. 
Pease  that  they  intended  to  return  to  Newcastle  "  by  nip ;"  that 
is,  they  expected  to  get  a  smuggled  lift  on  the  stage-coach  by 
tipping  Jehu — for  in  those  days  the  stage-coachmen  regarded  all 
casual  roadside  passengers  as  their  proper  perquisites.  They  had, 
however,  been  so  much  engrossed  by  their  conversation  that  the 
lapse  of  time  was  forgotten,  and  when  Stephenson  and  his  friend 
made  inquiries  about  the  return  coach,  they  found  the  last  had 
left,  and  they  had  to  walk  eighteen  miles  to  Durham  on  their 
way  back  to  Newcastle. 

Mr.  Pease  having  made  farther  inquiries  respecting  Stephen- 
son's  character  and  qualifications,  and  having  received  a  very 
strong  recommendation  of  him  as  the  right  man  for  the  intended 
work,  he  brought  the  subject  of  his  application  before  the  direc- 
tors of  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Company.  They  resolved 
to  adopt  his  recommendation  that  a  railway  be  formed  instead  of 
a  tram-road ;  and  they  farther  requested  Mr.  Pease  to  write  to 
Stepi  \enson,  desiring  him  to  undertake  a  resurvey  of  the  line  at 
the  earliest  practicable  period. 

A  man  was  dispatched  on  a  horse  with  the  letter,  and  when 
he  reached  Killing  worth  he  made  diligent  inquiry  after  the  per- 
son named  on  the  address,  "  George  Stephenson,  Esquire,  Engi- 
neer." No  such  person  was  known  in  the  village.  It  is  said  that 
the  man  was  on  the  point  of  giving  up  all  farther  search,  when 
the  happy  thought  struck  some  of  the  colliers'  wives  who  had 
gathered  about  him  that  it  must  be  "  Geordie  the  engine- wright" 
the  man  was  in  search  of,  and  to  Geordie's  cottage  he  according- 
ly went,  found  him  at  home,  and  delivered  the  letter. 

About  the  end  of  September  Stephenson  went  carefully  over 
the  line  of  the  proposed  railway  for  the  purpose  of  suggesting 
such  improvements  and  deviations  as  he  might  consider  desirable. 


CHAP.VIIL]        MR.  PEASE  VISITS  KILLINGWORTH.  229 

He  was  accompanied  by  an  assistant  and  a  chainman,  his  son 
Eobert  entering  the  figures  while  his  father  took  the  sights.  Aft- 
er being  engaged  in  the  work  at  intervals  for  about  six  weeks, 
Stephenson  reported  the  result  of  his  survey  to  the  Board  of  Di- 
rectors, and  showed  that,  by  certain  deviations,  a  line  shorter  by 
about  three  miles  might  be  constructed  at  a  considerable  saving 
in  expense,  while  at  the  same  time  more  favorable  gradients — an 
important  consideration — would  be  secured. 

It  was,  however,  determined  in  the  first  place  to  proceed  with 
the  works  at  those  parts  of  the  line  where  no  deviation  was  pro- 
posed, and  the  first  rail  of  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway 
was  laid  with  considerable  ceremony,  near  Stockton,  on  the  23d 
of  May,  1822. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  Stephenson,  in  making  his  first  esti- 
mate of  the  cost  of  forming  the  railway  according  to  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  directors,  set  down,  as  part  of  the  cost,  £6200  for 
stationary  engines,  not  mentioning  locomotives  at  all.  It  was 
the  intention  of  the  directors,  in  the  first  place,  to  employ  only 
horses  for  the  haulage  of  the  coals,  and  fixed  engines  and  ropes 
where  horse-power  was  not  applicable.  The  whole  question  of 
steam-locomotive  power  was,  in  the  estimation  of  the  public,  as 
well  as  of  practical  and  scientific  men,  as  yet  in  doubt.  The 
confident  anticipations  of  George  Stephenson  as  to  the  eventual 
success  of  locomotive  engines  were  regarded  as  mere  specula- 
tions ;  and  when  he  gave  utterance  to  his  views,  as  he  frequently 
took  the  opportunity  of  doing,  it  even  had  the  effect  of  shaking 
the  confidence  of  some  of  his  friends  in  the  solidity  of  his  judg- 
ment and  his  practical  qualities  as  an  engineer. 

When  Mr.  Pease  discussed  the  question  with  Stephenson,  his 
remark  was,  "  Come  over  and  see  my  engines  at  Killingworth, 
and  satisfy  yourself  as  to  the  efficiency  of  the  locomotive.  I  will 
show  you  the  colliery  books,  that  you  may  ascertain  for  yourself 
the  actual  cost  of  working.  And  I  must  tell  you  that  the  econ- 
omy of  the  locomotive  engine  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  theory, 
but  a  matter  of  fact."  So  confident  was  the  tone  in  which  Ste- 
phenson spoke  of  the  success  of  his  engines,  and  so  important 
were  the  consequences  involved  in  arriving  at  a  correct  conclu- 
sion on  the  subject,  that  Mr.  Pease  at  length  resolved  on  paying 
a  visit  to  Killingworth  in  the  summer  of  1822,  in  company  with 


230  STEPHENSON  APPOINTED  ENGINEER.  [PART  II. 

his  friend  Thomas  Richardson,  a  considerable  subscriber  to  the 
Stockton  and  Darlington  undertaking,*  to  inspect  the  wonderful 
new  power  so  much  vaunted  by  their  engineer. 

When  Mr.  Pease  arrived  at  Killingworth  village,  he  inquired 
for  George  Stephenson,  and  was  told  that  he  must  go  over  to  the 
West  Moor,  and  seek  for  a  cottage  by  the  roadside  with  a  dial 
over  the  door — "  that  was  where  George  Stephenson  lived."  They 
soon  found  the  house  with  the  dial,  and,  on  knocking,  the  door 
was  opened  by  Mrs.  Stephenson.  In  answer  to  Mr.  Pease's  in- 
quiry for  her  husband,  she  said  he  was  not  in  the  house  at  pres- 
ent, but-that  she  would  send  for  him  to  the  colliery.  And  in  a 
short  time  Stephenson  appeared  before  them  in  his  working  dress, 
just  as  he  had  come  out  of  the  pit. 

He  very  soon  had  his  locomotive  brought  up  to  the  crossing 
close  by  the  end  of  the  cottage,  made  the  gentlemen  mount  it, 
and  showed  them  its  paces.  Harnessing  it  to  a  train  of  loaded 
wagons,  he  ran  it  along  the  railroad,  and  so  thoroughly  satisfied 
his  visitors  of  its  power  and  capabilities,  that  from  that  day  Ed- 
ward Pease  was  a  declared  supporter  of  the  locomotive  engine. 
In  preparing  the  Amended  Stockton  and  Darlington  Act,  at  Ste- 
phenson's  urgent  request  Mr.  Pease  had  a  clause  inserted,  taking 
power  to  work  the  railway  by  means  of  locomotive  engines,  and 
to  employ  them  for  the  haulage  of  passengers  as  well  as  of  mer- 
chandise.f  The  act  was  obtained  in  1823,  on  which  Stephenson 
was  appointed  the  company's  engineer,  at  a  salary  of  £300  per 
annum  ;  and  it  was  determined  that  the  line  should  be  construct- 
ed and  opened  for  traffic  as  soon  as  practicable. 

He  at  once  proceeded,  accompanied  by  his  assistants,  with  the 
working  survey  of  the  line,  laying  out  every  foot  of  the  ground 
himself.  Railway  surveying  was  as  yet  in  its  infancy,  and  was 
slow  and  difficult  work.  It  afterward  became  a  separate  branch 
of  railway  business,  and  was  intrusted  to  a  special  staff.  Indeed, 
on  no  subsequent  line  did  George  Stephenson  take  the  sights 
through  the  spirit-level  with  his  own  hands  and  eyes  as  he  did 
on  this  railway.  He  started  very  early — dressed  in  a  blue  tailed 

*  Mr.  Richardson  was  founder  of  the  afterward  well-known  discount-house  of 
Richardson,  Overend,  and  Gurney,  Lombard  Street,  London. 

t  The  first  clause  in  any  railway  act  empowering  the  employment  of  locomotive 
engines  for  the  working  of  passenger  traffic. 


CHAP.  VIII.]  A  PLEASING  COMPANION.  231 

coat,  breeches,  and  top-boots — and  surveyed  until  dusk.  He  was 
not  at  any  time  particular  as  to  his  living ;  and,  during  the  sur- 
vey, he  took  his  chance  of  getting  a  little  milk  and  bread  at 
some  cottager's  house  along  the  line,  or  occasionally  joined  in  a 
homely  dinner  at  some  neighboring  farm-house.  The  country 
people  were  accustomed  to  give  him  a  hearty  welcome  when  he 
appeared  at  their  door,  for  he  was  always  full  of  cheery  and 
homely  talk,  and,  when  there  were  children  about  the  house,  he 
had  plenty  of  humorous  chat  for  them  as  well  as  for  their  seniors. 

After  the  day's  work  was  over,  George  would  drop  in  at  Mr. 
Pease's  to  talk  over  the  progress  of  the  survey,  and  discuss  va- 
rious matters  connected  with  the  railway.  Mr.  Pease's  daughters 
were  usually  present ;  and,  on  one  occasion,  finding  the  young 
ladies  learning  the  art  of  embroidery,  he  volunteered  to  instruct 
them.*  "  I  know  all  about  it,"  said  he,  "  and  you  will  wonder 
how  I  learned  it.  I  will  tell  you.  When  I  was  a  brakesman  at 
Killingworth,  I  learned  the  art  of  embroidery  while  working  the 
pitmen's  button-holes  by  the  engine  fire  at  nights."  He  was  nev- 
er ashamed,  but,  on  the  contrary,  rather  proud,  of  reminding  his 
friends  of  these  humble  pursuits  of  his  early  life.  Mr.  Pease's 
family  were  greatly  pleased  with  his  conversation,  which  was 
always  amusing  and  instructive ;  full  of  all  sorts  of  experience, 
gathered  in  the  oddest  and  most  out-of-the-way  places.  Even  at 
that  early  period,  before  he  mixed  in  the  society  of  educated  per- 
sons, there  was  a  dash  of  speculativeness  in  his  remarks  which 
gave  a  high  degree  of  originality  to  his  conversation ;  and  he 
would  sometimes,  in  a  casual  remark,  throw  a  flash  of  light  upon 
a  subject  which  called  up  a  train  of  pregnant  suggestions. 

One  of  the  most  important  subjects  of  discussion  at  these  meet- 
ings with  Mr.  Pease  was  the  establishment  of  a  manufactory  at 
Newcastle  for  the  building  of  locomotive  engines.  Up  to  this 
time  all  the  locomotives  constructed  after  Stephenson's  designs 
had  been  made  by  ordinary  mechanics  working  at  the  collieries 
in  the  North  of  England.  But  he  had  long  felt  that  the  accu- 
racy and  style  of  their  workmanship  admitted  of  great  improve- 
ment, and  that  upon  this  the  more  perfect  action  of  the  locomo- 

*  This  incident,  communicated  to  the  author  by  the  late  Edward  Pease,  has  since 
been  made  the  subject  of  a  fine  picture  by  Mr.  A.  Rankley,  A.E.A.,  exhibited  at  the 
Royal  Academy  Exhibition  of  1861. 


232  THE  LOCOMOTIVE  FACTORY  STARTED.          [PART  II. 

tive  engine,  and  its  general  adoption,  in  a  great  measure  depend- 
ed. One  principal  object  that  he  had  in  view  in  establishing  the 
proposed  factory  was  to  concentrate  a  number  of  good  workmen 
for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the  improvements  in  detail  which 
he  was  from  time  to  time  making  in  his  engine;  for  he  felt  ham- 
pered by  the  want  of  efficient  help  from  skilled  mechanics,  who 
could  work  out  in  a  practical  form  the  ideas  of  which  his  busy 
mind  was  always  so  prolific.  Doubtless,  too,  he  believed  that  the 
manufactory  would  prove  a  remunerative  investment,  and  that, 
on  the  general  adoption  of  the  railway  system  which  he  antici- 
pated, he  would  derive  solid  advantages  from  the  fact  of  his  es- 
tablishment being  the  only  one  of  the  kind  for  the  special  con- 
struction of  locomotive  engines. 

Mr.  Pease  approved  of  his  design,  and  strongly  recommended 
him  to  carry  it  into  effect.  But  there  was  the  question  of  means ; 
and  Stephenson  did  not  think  he  had  capital  enough  for  the  pur- 
pose. He  told  Mr.  Pease  that  he  could  advance  £1000  — the 
amount  of  the  testimonial  presented  by  the  coal-owners  for  his 
safety-lamp  invention,  which  he  had  still  left  untouched ;  but  he 
did  not  think  this  sufficient  for  the  purpose,  and  he  thought  that 
he  should  require  at  least  another  £1000.  Mr.  Pease  had  been 
very  much  struck  with  the  successful  performances  of  the  Kill- 
ingworth  engine ;  and,  being  an  accurate  judge  of  character,  he 
believed  that  he  could  not  go  far  wrong  in  linking  a  portion  of 
his  fortune  with  the  energy  and  industry  of  George  Stephenson. 
He  consulted  his  friend  Thomas  Richardson  in  the  matter,  and 
the  two  consented  to  advance  £500  each  for  the  purpose  of  es- 
tablishing the  engine  factory  at  Newcastle.  A  piece  of  land  was 
accordingly  purchased  in  Forth  Street,  in  August,  1823,  on  which 
a  small  building  was  erected — the  nucleus  of  the  gigantic  estab- 
lishment which  was  afterward  formed  around  it ;  and  active  op- 
erations were  begun  early  in  1824. 

While  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway  works  were  in 
progress,  our  engineer  had  many  interesting  discussions  with 
Mr.  Pease  on  points  connected  with  its  construction  and  work- 
ing, the  determination  of  which  in  a  great  measure  affected  the 
formation  and  working  of  future  railways.  The  most  impor- 
tant points  were  these :  1.  The  comparative  merits  of  cast  and 
wrought  iron  rails.  2.  The  gauge  of  the  railway.  3.  The  em- 


CHAP.  VIII.]       MALLEABLE  RAILS  RECOMMENDED.  233 

plojment  of  horse  or  engine  power  in  working  it  when  ready 
for  traffic. 

The  kind  of  rails  to  be  laid  down  to  form  the  permanent  road 
was  a  matter  of  considerable  importance.  A  wooden  tram-road 
had  been  contemplated  when  the  first  act  was  applied  for ;  but 
Stephenson  having  advised  that  an  iron  road  should  be  laid  down, 
he  was  instructed  to  draw  up  a  specification  of  the  rails.  He 
went  before  the  directors  to  discuss  with  them  the  kind  of  mate- 
rial to  be  specified.  He  was  himself  interested  in  the  patent  for 
cast-iron  rails,  which  he  had  taken  out  in  conjunction  with  Mr. 
Losh  in  1816,  and,  of  course,  it  was  to  his  interest  that  his  arti- 
cles should  be  used.  But  when  requested  to  give  his  opinion  on 
the  subject,  he  frankly  said  to  the  directors, "  "Well,  gentlemen,  to 
tell  you  the  truth,  although  it  would  put  £500  in  my  pocket  to 
specify  my  own  patent  rails,  I  can  not  do  so  after  the  experience 
I  have  had.  If  you  take  my  advice,  you  will  not  lay  down  a 
single  cast-iron  rail."  "  Why  ?"  asked  the  directors.  "  Because 
they  will  not  stand  the  weight,  and  you  will  be  at  no  end  of  ex- 
pense for  repairs  and  relays."  "  What  kind  of  road,  then,"  he 
was  asked, "  would  you  recommend  ?"  "  Malleable  rails,  certain- 
ly," said  he ;  "  and  I  can  recommend  them  with  the  more  con- 
fidence from  the  fact  that  at  Killingworth  we  have  had  some 
Swedish  bars  laid  down — nailed  to  wooden  sleepers — for  a  peri- 
od of  fourteen  years,  the  wagons  passing  over  them  daily,  and 
there  they  are,  in  use  yet,  whereas  the  cast  rails  are  constantly 
giving  way."* 

The  price  of  malleable  rails  was,  however,  so  high — being  then 
worth  about  £12  per  ton  as  compared  with  cast-iron  rails  at  about 
£5  10s. — and  the  saving  of  expense  was  so  important  a  consider- 
ation with  the  subscribers,  that  Stephenson  was  directed  to  pro- 
vide in  the  specification  that  only  one  half  of  the  rails  required 
— or  about  800  tons — should  be  of  malleable  iron,  and  the  re- 
mainder of  cast  iron.  The  malleable  rails  were  of  the  kind  call- 
ed "  fish-bellied,"  and  weighed  28  Ibs.  to  the  yard,  being  2 \  inches 

*  Stephenson's  recommendation  of  wrought-iron  instead  of  cast-iron  rails  was  the 
cause  of  a  rupture  between  Mr.  Losh  and  himself.  Stephenson  thought  his  duty  was 
to  give  his  employers  the  best  advice ;  Losh  thought  his  business  was  to  push  the 
patent  cast-iron  rails  wherever  he  could.  Stephenson  regarded  this  view  as  sordid ; 
and  the  two  finally  separated  after  a  quarrel,  in  high  dudgeon  with  each  other. 


234  THE  QUESTION  OF  TRACTIVE  POWER.          [PART  II. 

broad  at  the  top,  with  the  upper  flange  f  inch  thick.  They  were 
only  2  inches  in  depth  at  the  points  at  which  they  rested  on  the 
chairs,  and  3J  inches  in  the  middle  or  bellied  part. 

When  forming  the  road,  the  proper  gauge  had  also  to  be  de- 
termined. What  width  was  this  to  be  ?  The  gauge  of  the  first 
tram-road  laid  down  had  virtually  settled  the  point.  The  gauge 
of  wheels  of  the  common  vehicles  of  the  country — of  the  carts 
and  wagons  employed  on  common  roads,  which  were  first  used 
on  the  tram-roads — was  about  4  feet  8|-  inches.  And  so  the  first 
tram-roads  were  laid  down  of  this  gauge.  The  tools  and  ma- 
chinery for  constructing  coal-wagons  and  locomotives  were  formed 
with  this  gauge  in  view.  The  Wylam  wagon-way,  afterward  the 
Wylam  plate- way,  the  KiHingworth  railroad,  and  the  Hetton  rail- 
road, were  as  nearly  as  possible  on  the  same  gauge.  Some  of 
the  earth- wagons  used  to  form  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  road 
were  brought  from  the  Hetton  Railway ;  and  others  which  were 
specially  constructed  were  formed  of  the  same  dimensions,  these 
being  intended  to  be  afterward  employed  in  the  working  of  the 
traffic. 

As  the  period  drew  near  for  the  opening  of  the  line,  the  ques- 
tion of  the  tractive  power  to  be  employed  was  anxiously  dis- 
cussed. At  the  Brusselton  incline,  fixed  engines  must  necessari- 
ly be  made  use  of;  but  with  respect  to  the  mode  of  working  the 
railway  generally,  it  was  decided  that  horses  were  to  be  largely 
employed,  and  arrangements  were  made  for  their  purchase. 

Although  locomotives  had  been  regularly  employed  in  hauling 
coal-wagons  on  the  Middleton  Colliery  Railway,  near  Leeds,  for 
more  than  twelve  years,  and  on  the  Wylam  and  Killingworth 
Railways  near  Newcastle  for  more  than  ten  years,  great  skepti- 
cism still  prevailed  as  to  the  economy  of  employing  them  for  the 
purpose  in  lieu  of  horses.  In  this  case,  it  would  appear  that  see- 
ing was  not  believing.  The  popular  skepticism  was  as  great  at 
Newcastle,  where  the  opportunities  for  accurate  observation  were 
the  greatest,  as  any  where  else.  In  1824  the  scheme  of  a  canal 
between  that  town  and  Carlisle  again  came  up,  and,  though  a  few 
timid  voices  were  raised  on  behalf  of  a  railway,  the  general  opin- 
ion was  still  in  favor  of  a  canal.  The  example  of  the  Hetton 
Railway,  which  had  been  successfully  worked  by  Stephenson's 
locomotives  for  two  years  past,  was  pointed  to  in  proof  of  the 


CHAP.  Vm.]  THREE  LOCOMOTIVES  ORDERED.  235 

practicability  of  a  locomotive  line  between  the  two  places ;  but 
the  voice  of  the  press  as  well  as  of  the  public  was  decidedly 
against  the  "  new-fangled  roads." 

"  There  has  been  some  talk,"  wrote  the  "  Whitehaven  Gazette," 
"  from  a  puff  criticism  in  the '  Monthly  Keview,'  of  an  improve- 
ment on  the  principle  of  railways ;  but  we  suspect  that  this  im- 
provement will  turn  out  like  the  steam-carriages,  of  which  we 
have  been  told  so  much,  that  were  to  supersede  the  use  of  horses 
entirely,  and  travel  at  a  rate  almost  equal  to  the  speed  of  the 
fleetest  horse  /"  The  idea  was  too  chimerical  to  be  entertained, 
and  the  suggested  railway  was  accordingly  rejected  as  impracti- 
cable. 

The  "Tyne  Mercury"  was  equally  decided  against  railways. 
"What  person,"  asked  the  editor  (November  16th,  1824), «  would 
ever  think  of  paying  any  thing  to  be  conveyed  from  Hexham  to 
Newcastle  in  something  like  a  coal-wagon,  upon  a  dreary  wagon- 
way,  and  to  be  dragged  for  the  greater  part  of  the  distance  by  a 
SOAKING  STEAM-ENGINE  !"  The  very  notion  of  such  a  thing  was 
preposterous,  ridiculous,  and  utterly  absurd. 

When  such  was  the  state  of  public  opinion  as  to  railway  loco- 
motion, some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  clearsightedness  and 
moral  courage  of  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  directors  in  order- 
ing three  of  Stephenson's  locomotive  engines,  at  a  cost  of  several 
thousand  pounds,  against  the  opening  of  the  railway. 

These  were  constructed  after  Stephenson's  most  matured  de- 
signs, and  embodied  all  the  improvements  which  he  had  con- 
trived up  to  that  time.  No.  1  engine,  the  "  Locomotion,"  which 
was  first  delivered,  weighed  about  eight  tons.  It  had  one  large 
flue  or  tube  through  the  boiler,  by  which  the  heated  air  passed 
direct  from  the  furnace  at  one  end,  lined  with  fire-bricks,  to  the 
chimney  at  the  other.  The  combustion  in  the  furnace  was  quick- 
ened by  the  adoption  of  the  steam-blast  in  the  chimney.  The 
heat  raised  was  sometimes  so  great,  and  it  was  so  imperfectly  ab- 
stracted by  the  surrounding  water,  that  the  chimney  became  al- 
most red-hot.  Such  engines,  when  put  to  their  speed,  were  found 
capable  of  running  at  the  rate  of  from  twelve  to  sixteen  miles  an 
hour ;  but  they  were  better  adapted  for  the  heavy  work  of  haul- 
ing coal-trains  at  low  speeds — for  which,  indeed,  they  were  spe- 
cially constructed — than  for  running  at  the  higher  speeds  after- 


236  STEPHENSON'S  PROPHECY.  [PART  II. 

ward  adopted.  Nor  was  it  contemplated  by  the  directors  as 
possible,  at  the  time  when  they  were  ordered,  that  locomotives 
could  be  made  available  for  the  purposes  of  passenger  traveling. 
Besides,  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway  did  not  run  through 
a  district  in  which  passengers  were  supposed  to  be  likely  to  con- 
stitute any  considerable  portion  of  the  traffic. 

"We  may  easily  imagine  the  anxiety  felt  by  George  Stephenson 
during  the  progress  of  the  works  toward  completion,  and  his  min- 
gled hopes  and  doubts  (though  his  doubts  were  but  few)  as  to  the 
issue  of  this  great  experiment.  When  the  formation  of  the  line 
near  Stockton  was  well  advanced,  the  engineer  one  day,  accom- 
panied by  his  son  Robert  and  John  Dixon,  made  a  journey  of 
inspection  of  the  works.  The  party  reached  Stockton,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  dine  at  one  of  the  inns  there.  After  dinner,  Stephen- 
son  ventured  on  the  very  unusual  measure  of  ordering  in  a  bottle 
of  wine,  to  drink  success  to  the  railway.  John  Dixon  relates  with 
pride  the  utterance  of  the  master  on  the  occasion.  "  Now,  lads," 
'  said  he  to  the  two  young  men, "  I  venture  to  tell  you  that  I  think 
you  will  live  to  see  the  day  when  railways  will  supersede  almost 
all  other  methods  of  conveyance  in  this  country — when  mail- 
coaches  will  go  by  railway,  and  railroads  will  become  the  great 
highways  for  the  king  and  all  his  subjects.  The  time  is  coming 
when  it  will  be  cheaper  for  a  working  man  to  travel  on  a  railway 
than  to  walk  on  foot.  I  know  there  are  great  and  almost  insur- 
mountable difficulties  to  be  encountered,  but  what  I  have  said 
will  come  to  pass  as  sure  as  you  now  hear  me.  I  only  wish  I 
may  live  to  see  the  day,  though  that  I  can  scarcely  hope  for,  as 
I  know  how  slow  all  human  progress  is,  and  with  what  difficulty 
I  have  been  able  to  get  the  locomotive  introduced  thus  far,  not- 
withstanding my  more  than  ten  years'  successful  experiment  at 
Killingworth."  The  result,  however,  outstripped  even  George 
Stephenson's  most  sanguine  anticipations ;  and  his  son  Robert, 
shortly  after  his  return  from  America  in  1827,  saw  his  father's 
locomotive  adopted  as  the  tractive  power  on  railways  generally. 

Tuesday,  the  27th  of  September,  1825,  was  a  great  day  for  Dar- 
lington. The  railway,  after  having  been  under  construction  for 
more  than  three  years,  was  at  length  about  to  be  opened.  The 
project  had  been  the  talk  of  the  neighborhood  for  so  long  that 
there  were  few  people  within  a  range  of  twenty  miles  who  did 


CHAP.  VIII.]   STOCKTON  AND  DARLINGTON  ROAD  OPENED.   237 

not  feel  more  or  less  interested  about  it.  Was  it  to  be  a  failure 
or  a  success  ?  Opinions  were  pretty  equally  divided  as  to  the 
railway,  but  as  regarded  the  locomotive  the  general  belief  was 
that  it  would  "  never  answer."  However,  there  the  locomotive 
was — "  No.  1" — delivered  on  to  the  line,  and  ready  to  draw  the 
first  train  of  wagons  on  the  opening  day. 

A  great  concourse  of  people  assembled  on  the  occasion.  Some 
came  from  Newcastle  and  Durham,  many  from  the  Aucklands, 
while  Darlington  held  a  general  holiday,  and  turned  out  all  its 
population.  To  give  eclat  to  the  opening,  the  directors  of  the 
company  issued  a  programme  of  the  proceedings,  intimating  the 
times  at  which  the  procession  of  wagons  would  pass  certain  points 
along  the  line.  The  proprietors  assembled  as  early  as  six  in  the 
morning  at  the  Brusselton  fixed  engine,  where  the  working  of 
the  inclined  planes  was  successfully  rehearsed.  A  train  of  wag- 
ons laden  with  coals  and  merchandise  was  drawn  up  the  western 
incline  by  the  fixed  engine,  a  length  of  1960  yards,  in  seven  and 
a  half  minutes,  and  then  lowered  down  the  incline  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  hill,  880  yards,  in  five  minutes. 

At  the  foot  of  the  incline  the  procession  of  vehicles  was  form- 
ed, consisting  of  the  locomotive  engine  No.  1,  driven  by  George 
Stephenson  himself;  after  it  six  wagons  loaded  with  coals  and 
flour,  then  a  covered  coach  containing  directors  and  proprietors, 
next  twenty-one  coal-wagons  fitted  up  for  passengers  (with  which 
they  were  crammed),  and  lastly  six  more  wagons  -loaded  with 
coals. 

Strange  to  say,  a  man  on  a  horse,  carrying  a  flag,  with  the 
motto  of  the  company  inscribed  on  it,  Periculum  privatum  util- 
itas publica,  headed  the  procession!  A  lithographic  view  of  the 
great  event,  published  shortly  after,  duly  exhibits  the  horseman 
and  his  flag.  It  was  not  thought  so  dangerous  a  place  after  all. 
The  locomotive  was  only  supposed  to  be  able  to  go  at  the  rate  of 
from  four  to  six  miles  an  hour,  and  an  ordinary  horse  could  eas- 
ily keep  ahead  of  that. 

Off  started  the  procession,  with  the  horseman  at  its  head.  A 
great  concourse  of  people  stood  along  the  line.  Many  of  them 
tried  to  accompany  it  by  running,  and  some  gentlemen  on  horse- 
back galloped  across  the  fields  to  keep  up  with  the  train.  The 
railway  descending  with  a  gentle  incline  toward  Darlington,  the 


THE  OPENING  PROCESSION  AND  FESTIVITIES.    [PAET  II. 


PBOCK8SION   AT   THE   OPENING   OP   THE   STOCKTON   AND   DAKLUJGTOJJ  EAILWAY. 

[Fac-simile  of  a  local  lithograph.] 

rate  of  speed  was  consequently  variable.  At  a  favorable  part  of 
the  road  Stephenson  determined  to  try  the  speed  of  the  engine, 
and  he  called  upon  the  horseman  with  the  flag  to  get  out  of  the 
way !  Most  probably,  deeming  it  unnecessary  to  carry  his  Per- 
iculum  privatum  farther,  the  horseman  turned  aside,  and  Ste- 
phenson "  put  on  the  steam."  The  speed  was  at  once  raised  to 
twelve  miles  an  hour,  and,  at  a  favorable  part  of  the  road,  to  fif- 
teen. The  runners  on  foot,  the  gentlemen  on  horseback,  and  the 
horseman  with  the  flag,  were  consequently  soon  left  far  behind. 
When  the  train  reached  Darlington,  it  was  found  that  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  passengers  occupied  the  wagons,  and  that  the  load 
of  men,  coals,  and  merchandise  amounted  to  about  ninety  tons. 

At  Darlington  the  procession  was  rearranged.  The  six  loaded 
coal-wagons  were  left  behind,  and  other  wagons  were  taken  on 
with  a  hundred  and  fifty  more  passengers,  together  with  a  band 
of  music.  The  train  then  started  for  Stockton — a  distance  of 
only  twelve  miles — which  was  reached  in  about  three  hours.  The 
day  was  kept  throughout  the  district  as  a  holiday;  and  horses, 
gigs,  carts,  and  other  vehicles,  filled  with  people,  stood  along  the 
railway,  as  well  as  crowds  of  persons  on  foot,  waiting  to  see  the 
train  pass.  The  whole  population  of  Stockton  turned  out  to  re- 
ceive the  procession,  and,  after  a  walk  through  the  streets,  the 


CHAP.  VIIL]  THE  COAL  TRAFFIC.  239 

inevitable  dinner  in  the  Town  Hall  wound  up  the  day's  proceed- 
ings. 

All  this,  however,  was  but  gala  work.  The  serious  business 
of  the  company  began  on  the  following  day.  Upon  the  result 
of  the  experiment  now  fairly  initiated  by  the  Stockton  and  Dar- 
lington Company  the  future  of  railways  in  a  great  measure  de- 
pended. If  it  failed,  like  the  Wandsworth,  Croydon,  and  Mers- 
thain  undertaking,  then  a  great  check  would  unquestionably  be 
given  to  speculation  in  railways.  If  it  succeeded,  the  Stockton 
and  Darlington  enterprise  would  mark  the  beginning  of  a  new 
era,  and  issue  in  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  complete  revolu- 
tion of  the  means  of  communication  in  all  civilized  countries. 

The  circumstances  were  on  the  whole  favorable,  and  boded 
success  rather  than  failure.  Prudent,  careful,  thoughtful  men 
were  at  the  head  of  the  concern,  interested  in  seeing  it  managed 
economically  and  efficiently ;  and  they  had  the  advantage  of  the 
assistance  of  an  engineer  possessed  of  large  resources  of  mother 
wit,  mechanical  genius,  and  strong  common  sense.  There  was 
an  almost  unlimited  quantity  of  coal  to  be  carried,  the  principal 
difficulty  being  in  accommodating  it  satisfactorily.  Yet  it  was 
only  after  the  line  had  been  at  work  for  some  time  that  the  ex- 
tensive character  of  the  coal  traffic  began  to  be  appreciated.  At 
first  it  was  supposed  that  the  chief  trade  would  be  in  coal  for 
land  sale.  But  the  clause  inserted  in  the  original  act,  at  the  in- 
stance of  Mr.  Lambton,  by  which  the  company  were  limited  to 
\d.  per  ton  per  mile  for  coal  led  to  Stockton  for  shipment,  led  to 
the  most  iinexpected  consequences.  It  was  estimated  that  only 
about  10,000  tons  a  year  would  be  shipped,  and  that  principally 
by  way  of  ballast.  Instead  of  which,  in  the  course  of  a  very  few 
years,  the  coal  carried  on  the  line  for  export  constituted  the  main 
bulk  of  the  traffic,  while  that  carried  for  land  sale  was  merely 
subsidiary.* 

*  The  rapid  progress  of  the  coal  and  merchandise  traffic  of  the  Stockton  and  Dar- 
lington line,  of  which  Middlesbro'  is  the  principal  sea-port,  may  be  inferred  from  the 
following  brief  statement  of  facts :  The  orginal  estimate  assumed  that  165,488  tons 
of  coal  would  be  carried  annually,  and  produce  an  income  of  £11,904.  The  revenue 
from  other  sources  was  taken  at  £4104.  In  1827,  the  first  year  in  which  the  coal 
and  merchandise  traffic  was  fully  worked,  the  revenue  from  coal  was  £14,455  ;  from 
lime,  merchandise,  and  sundries,  £3285 ;  and  from  passengers  (which  had  not  been 
taken  into  account),  £563.  In  1860,  when  the  original  line  of  25  miles  had  become  ex- 


240  FIRST  RAIL  WA  Y-  CO  A  CH.  [PART  II. 

The  anticipations  of  the  company  as  to  passenger-traffic  were 
in  like  manner  more  than  realized.  At  first  passengers  were 
not  thought  of,  and  it  was  only  while  the  works  were  in  progress 
that  the  starting  of  a  passenger-coach  was  seriously  contemplated. 
Some  eighty  years  since  there  was  only  one  post-chaise  in  Dar- 
lington, which  ran  on  three  wheels.  There  are  people  still  living 
who  remember  when  a  coach  ran  from  Stockton  three  days  in 
the  week,  passing  through  Darlington  and  Barnard  Castle ;  but 
it  was  starved  off  the  road  for  want  of  support.  There  was  then 
very  little  intercourse  between  the  towns,  though  they  were  so 
near  to  each  other,  and  comparatively  so  populous ;  and  it  was 
not  known  whether  people  would  trust  themselves  to  the  iron 
road.  Nevertheless,  it  was  determined  to  make  trial  of  a  railway 
coach,  and  George  Stephenson  was  authorized  to  have  one  built 
at  Newcastle  at  the  cost  of  the  company.  This  was  done  accord- 
ingly, and  the  first  railway  passenger-carriage  was  built  after  our 
engineer's  design.  It  was,  however,  a  very  modest,  and,  indeed, 
a  somewhat  uncouth  machine,  more  resembling  a  showman's  cara- 
van than  a  passenger-coach  of  any  extant  form.  A  row  of  seats 
ran  along  each  side  of  the  interior,  and  a  long  deal  table  was 
fixed  in  the  centre,  the  access  being  by  means  of  a  door  at  the 
back  end,  in  the  manner  of  an  omnibus.  This  coach  arrived 
from  Newcastle  on  the  day  before  the  opening,  and  formed  part 
of  the  procession  above  described.  Stephenson  was  consulted  as 
to  the  name  of  the  coach,  and  he  at  once  suggested  the  "  Experi- 
ment ;"  and  by  this  name  it  was  called.  Such  was  the  sole  pas- 
senger-carrying stock  of  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Company 
in  the  year  1825.  But "  The  Experiment"  proved  the  forerunner 
of  a  mighty  traffic ;  and  long  time  did  not  elapse  before  it  was 
displaced,  not  only  by  improved  coaches  (still  drawn  by  horses), 
but  afterward  by  long  trains  of  passenger-carriages  drawn  by  lo- 
comotive engines. 

The  "Experiment"  was  fairly  started  as  a  passenger-coach  on 
the  10th  of  October,  1825,  a  fortnight  after  the  opening  of  the 

tended  to  125  miles,  and  the  original  capital  of  £150,000  had  swelled  to  £3,800,000, 
the  quantity  of  coal  carried  had  increased  to  3,045,596  tons  in  the  year,  besides 
1,484,409  tons  of  ironstone  and  other  minerals,  producing  a  revenue  of  £280,375 : 
while  1,484,409  tons  of  merchandise  had  been  carried  in  the  same  year,  producing 
£63,478,  and  687,728  passengers,  producing  £45,398. 


CHAP.  VIII.] 


THE  FIRST  PASSENGER-TRAFFIC. 


241 


line.  It  was  drawn  by  one  horse,  and  performed  a  journey  daily 
each  way  between  the  two  towns,  accomplishing  the  distance  of 
twelve  miles  in  about  two  hours.  The  fare  charged  was  a  shil- 
ling, without  distinction  of  class ;  and  each  passenger  was  allowed 
fourteen  pounds  of  luggage  free.  The  "Experiment"  was  not, 
however,  worked  by  the  company,  but  was  let  to  contractors,  who 
worked  it  under  an  arrangement  whereby  toll  was  paid  for  the 
use  of  the  line,  rent  of  booking-cabins,  etc.* 


THE  FIB8T  KAU.WAY-OOAOU. 

The  speculation  answered  so  well  that  several  private  coaching 
companies  were  shortly  after  got  up  by  innkeepers  at  Darlington 
and  Stockton  for  the  purpose  of  running  other  coaches  upon  the 
railroad,  and  an  active  competition  for  passenger-traffic  sprang 
up.  The  "  Experiment,"  being  found  too  heavy  for  one  horse  to 

*  The  coaches  were  not  allowed  to  be  run  upon  the  line  without  considerable  op- 
position. We  find  Edward  Pease  writing  to  Joseph  Sandars,  of  Liverpool,  on  the 
18th  of  June,  1827:  "Our  railway  coach  proprietors  have  individually  received  no- 
tices of  a  process  in  the  Exchequer  for  various  fines,  to  the  amount  of  £150,  in  penal- 
ties of  £20  each,  for  neglecting  to  have  the  plates,  with  the  numbers  of  their  licenses, 
on  the  coach  doors,  agreeably  to  the  provision  of  the  Act  95  George  IV.  In  looking 
into  the  nature  of  this  proceeding  and  its  consequences,  it  is  clear,  if  the  court  shall 
confirm  it  by  conviction,  that  we  are  undone  as  to  the  conveyance  of  passengers." 
Mr.  Pease  incidentally  mentions  the  names  of  the  several  coach  proprietors  at  the 
time — "  Pickersgill  and  Co.,  Richard  Scott,  and  Martha  Hewson."  The  proceeding 
was  eventually  defeated,  it  being  decided  that  the  penalties  only  applied  to  coaches 
traveling  on  common  or  turnpike  roads. 

Q 


242  CONTENTION  ON  THE  ROAD.  [PART  IL 

draw,  besides  being  found  an  uncomfortable  machine,  was  ban- 
ished to  the  coal  district.  Its  place  was  then  supplied  by  other 
and  better  vehicles,  though  they  were  no  other  than  old  stage- 
coach bodies  purchased  by  the  company,  each  mounted  on  an 
under-frame  with  flange  wheels.  These  were  let  on  hire  to  the 
coaching  companies,  who  horsed  and  managed  them  under  an  ar- 
rangement as  to  tolls,  in  like  manner  as  the  "  Experiment"  had 
been  worked.  Now  began  the  distinction  of  inside  and  outside 
passengers,  equivalent  to  first  and  second  class,  paying  different 
fares.  The  competition  with  each  other  upon  the  railway,  and 
with  the  ordinary  stage-coaches  upon  the  road,  soon  brought  up 
the  speed,  which  was  increased  to  ten  miles  an  hour — the  mail- 
coach  rate  of  traveling  in  those  days,  and  considered  very  fast. 

Mr.  Clephan,  a  native  of  the  district,  has  communicated  to  the 
author  the  following  account  of  the  competition  between  the 
rival  coach  companies : 

"There  were  two  separate  coach  companies  in  Stockton,  and 
amusing  collisions  sometimes  occurred  between  the  drivers,  who 
found  on  the  rail  a  novel  element  for  contention.  Coaches  can  not 
pass  each  other  on  the  rail  as  on  the  road,  and,  as  the  line  was  sin- 
gle, with  four  sidings  in  the  mile,  when  two  coaches  met,  or  two 
trains,  or  coach  and  train,  the  question  arose  which  of  the  drivers 
must  go  back.  This  was  not  always  settled  in  silence.  As  to 
trains,  it  came  to  be  a  sort  of  understanding  that  empty  should  give 
way  to  loaded  wagons ;  and  as  to  trains  and  coaches,  that  passen- 
gers should  have  preference  over  coals ;  while  coaches,  when  they 
met,  must  quarrel  it  out.  At  length,  midway  between  sidings,  a 
post  was  erected,  and  the  rule  was  laid  down  that  he  who  had 
passed  the  pillar  must  go  on,  and  the  '  coming  man'  go  back.  At 
the  Goose  Pool  and  Early  Nook  it  was  common  for  the  coaches  to 
stop,  and  there,  as  Jonathan  would  say,  passengers  and  coachmen 
'  liquored.'  One  coach,  introduced  by  an  innkeeper,  was  a  com- 
pound of  two  mourning-coaches — an  approximation  to  the  real  rail- 
way-coach, which  still  adheres,  with  multiplying  exceptions,  to  the 
stage-coach  type.  One  Dixon,  who  drove  the  'Experiment'  be- 
tween Darlington  and  Shildon,  is  the  inventor  of  carriage-lighting 
on  the  rail.  On  a  dark  winter  night,  having  compassion  on  his  pas- 
sengers, he  would  buy  a  penny  candle,  and  place  it  lighted  among 
them  on  the  table  of  the  'Experiment' — the  first  railway-coach 
(which,  by  the  way,  ended  its  days  at  Shildon  as  a  railway  cabin), 


CHAP.  VIII.]        A  RACE— HORSES  AGAINST  STEAM.  243 

being  also  the  first  coach  on  the  rail  (first,  second,  and  third  class 
jammed  all  into  one)  that  indulged  its  customers  with  light  in 
darkness." 

The  traffic  of  all  sorts  increased  so  steadily  and  so  rapidly  that 
considerable  difficulty  was  experienced  in  working  it  satisfacto- 
rily. It  had  been  provided  by  the  first  Stockton  and  Darlington 
Act  that  the  line  should  be  free  to  all  parties  who  chose  to  use  it 
at  certain  prescribed  rates,  and  that  any  person  might  put  horses 
and  wagons  on  the  railway,  and  carry  for  himself.  But  this  ar- 
rangement led  to  increasing  confusion  and  difficulty,  and  could 
not  continue  in  the  face  of  a  large  and  rapidly-increasing  traffic. 
The  goods  trains  got  so  long  that  the  carriers  found  it  necessary 
to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  locomotive  engine  to  help  them  on  their 
way.  Then  mixed  trains  of  passengers  and  merchandise  began 
to  run ;  and  the  result  was  that  the  Railway  Company  found  it 
necessary  to  take  the  entire  charge  and  working  of  the  traffic. 
In  course  of  time  new  coaches  were  specially  built  for  the  better 
accommodation  of  the  public,  until  at  length  regular  passenger- 
trains  were  run,  drawn  by  the  locomotive  engine,  though  this  was 
not  until  after  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Company  had  es- 
tablished this  as  a  distinct  branch  of  their  traffic. 

The  three  Stephenson  locomotives  were  from  the  first  regular- 
ly employed  to  work  the  coal-trains,  and  their  proved  efficiency 
for  this  purpose  led  to  the  gradual  increase  of  the  locomotive 
power.  The  speed  of  the  engine — slow  though  it  seems  now — 
was  in  those  days  regarded  as  something  marvelous.  A  race  act- 
ually came  off  between  No.  1  engine,  the  "  Locomotion,"  and  one 
of  the  stage-coaches  traveling  from  Darlington  to  Stockton  by 
the  ordinary  road,  and  it  was  regarded  as  a  great  triumph  of  me- 
chanical skill  that  the  locomotive  reached  Stockton  first,  beating 
the  stage-coach  by  about  a  hundred  yards !  The  same  engine 
continued  in  good  working  order  in  the  year  1846,  when  it  head- 
ed the  railway  procession  oji  the  opening  of  the  Middlesborough 
and  Eedcar  Railway,  traveling  at  the  rate  of  about  fourteen  miles 
an  hour.  This  engine,  the  first  that  traveled  on  the  first  public 
locomotive  railway,  has  recently  been  placed  upon  a  pedestal  in 
front  of  the  railway  station  at  Darlington. 

For  some  years,  however,  the  principal  haulage  of  the  line  was 
performed  by  horses.  The  inclination  of  the  gradients  being  to- 


244  SUCCESS  OF  THE  UNDERTAKING.  [PAKT.  II. 


THE   NO.  1    ENGINE   AT   DARLINGTON. 


ward  the  sea,  this  was  perhaps  the  cheapest  mode  of  traction,  so 
long  as  the  traffic  was  not  very  large.  The  horse  drew  the  train 
along  the  level  road  until,  on  reaching  a  descending  gradient, 
down  which  the  train  ran  by  its  own  gravity,  the  animal  was  un- 
harnessed, when,  wheeling  round  to  the  other  end  of  the  wagons, 
to  which  a  "  dandy-cart"  was  attached,  its  bottom  being  only  a 
few  inches  from  the  rail,  and  bringing  his  step  into  unison  with 
the  speed  of  the  train,  he  leaped  nimbly  into  his  place  in  the  hind 
car,  which  was  usually  fitted  with  a  well-filled  hay-rack. 

The  details  of  the  working  were  gradually  perfected  by  expe- 
rience, the  projectors  of  the  line  being  scarcely  conscious  at  first 
of  the  importance  and  significance  of  the  work  which  they  had 
taken  in  hand,  and  little  thinking  that  they  were  laying  the  foun- 
dations of  a  system  which  was  yet  to  revolutionize  the  internal 
communications  of  the  world,  and  confer  the  greatest  blessings 
on  mankind.  It  is  important  to  note*  that  the  commercial  results 
of  the  enterprise  were  considered  satisfactory  from  the  opening 
of  the  railway.  Besides  conferring  a  great  public  benefit  upon 
the  inhabitants  of  the  district,  and  throwing  open  entirely  new 
markets  for  the  almost  boundless  stores  of  coal  found  in  the 
Bishop  Auckland  district,  the  profits  derived  from  the  traffic  ere- 


CHAP.  VIII.]         THE  TOWN  OF  MIDDLES  BOROUGH.  245 

ated  by  the  railway  enabled  increasing  dividends  to  be  paid  to 
those  who  had  risked  their  capital  in  the  undertaking,  and  thus 
held  forth  an  encouragement  to  the  projectors  of  railways  gen- 
erally, which  was  not  without  an  important  effect  in  stimulating 
the  projection  of  similar  enterprises  in  other  districts.  These  re- 
sults, as  displayed  in  the  annual  dividends,  must  have  been  emi- 
nently encouraging  to  the  astute  commercial  men  of  Liverpool 
and  Manchester,  who  were  then  engaged  in  the  prosecution  of 
their  railway.  Indeed,  the  commercial  success  of  the  Stockton 
and  Darlington  Company  may  be  justly  characterized  as  the  turn- 
ing-point of  the  railway  system.  With  that  practical  illustration 
daily  in  sight  of  the  public,  it  was  no  longer  possible  for  Parlia- 
ment to  have  prevented  its  eventual  extension. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  Stockton  and  Darlington 
Railway,  we  can  not  avoid  alluding  to  one  of  its  most  ^^narka- 
ble  and  direct  results — the  creation  of  the  town  of  Middlesbor- 
ough-on-Tees.  When  the  railway  was  opened  in  1825,  the  site 
of  this  future  metropolis  of  Cleveland  was  occupied  by  one  soli- 
tary farm-house  and  its  out-buildings.  All  round  was  pasture- 
land  or  mud-banks ;  scarcely  another  house  was  within  sight. 
The  corporation  of  the  town  of  Stockton  being  unwilling  or  un- 
able to  provide  accommodation  for  the  rapidly  increasing  coal 
traffic,  Mr.  Edward  Pease,  in  1829,  joined  by  a  few  of  his  Quaker 
friends,  bought  about  500  or  600  acres  of  land  five  miles  lower 
down  the  river — the  site  of  the  modern  Middlesborough — for  the 
purpose  of  there  forming  a  new  sea-port  for  the  shipment  of  coals 
brought  to  the  Tees  by  the  railway.  The  line  was  accordingly 
extended  thither ;  docks  were  excavated ;  a  town  sprang  up ; 
churches,  chapels,  and  schools  were  built,  with  a  custom-house, 
mechanics'  institute,  banks,  ship-building  yards,  and  iron  facto- 
ries, and  in  a  few  years  the  port  of  Middlesborough  became  one 
of  the  most  thriving  on  the  northeast  coast  of  England.  In  ten 
years  a  busy  population  of  some  6000  persons  (since  swelled  to 
about  25,000)  occupied  the  site  of  the  original  farm-house.  More 
recently,  the  discovery  of  vast  stores  of  ironstone  in  the  Cleveland 
Hills,  close  adjoining  Middlesborough,  has  tended  still  more  rap- 
idly to  augment  the  population  and  increase  the  commercial  im- 
portance of  the  place. 

It  is  pleasing  to  relate,  in  connection  with  this  great  work — 


246 


"ESTEEM  AND  GRATITUDE: 


[PART  II. 


the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway,  projected  by  Edward  Pease 
and  executed  by  George  Stephenson — that  when  Mr.  Stephenson 
became  a  prosperous  and  a  celebrated  man,  he  did  not  forget  the 
friend  who  had  taken  him  by  the  hand,  and  helped  him  on  in  his 
early  days.  He  continued  to  remember  Mr.  Pease  with  gratitude 
and  affection,  and  that  gentleman,  to  the  close  of  his  life,  was 
proud  to  exhibit  a  handsome  gold  watch,  received  as  a  gift  from 
his  celebrated  protege,  bearing  these  words — "Esteem  and  grati- 
tude :  from  George  Stephenson  to'Edward  Pease." 


MIDDLJtSBOEOCGH-ON-TEES.: 


CHAP.  IX.]     LIVERPOOL  AND  MANCHESTER  TRAFFIC.  247 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   LIVEEPOOL   AND   MANCHESTER   RAILWAY   PROJECTED. 

WHILE  the  coal  proprietors  of  the  Bishop  Auckland  district 
were  taking  steps  to  connect  their  collieries  with  the  sea  by  means 
of  an  iron  railroad,  the  merchants  of  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
were  considering  whether  some  better  means  could  not  be  devised 
for  bringing  these  important  centres  of  commerce  and  manufac- 
ture into  more  direct  connection. 

There  were  canals  as  well  as  roads  between  the  two  places,  but 
all  routes  were  alike  tedious  and  costly,  especially  as  regarded  the 
transit  of  heavy  goods.  The  route  by  turnpike  road  was  thirty- 
six  miles,  by  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater's  Canal  fifty  miles,  by  the 
Mersey  and  Irwell  navigation  the  same,  and  by  the  Leeds  and 
Liverpool  Canal  fifty-six  miles. 

These  were  all  overburdened  with  traffic.  The  roads  were 
bad,  the  tolls  heavy,  and  the  haulage  expensive.  The  journey  by 
coach  occupied  from  five  to  six  hours,  and  by  wagon  nearly  a 
day.  But  very  few  heavy  goods  went  by  road.  The  canals  near- 
ly monopolized  this  traffic,  and,  having  contrived  to  keep  up  the 
rates,  the  canal  companies  charged  what  they  liked.  They  con- 
ducted their  business  in  a  drowsy,  sleepy,  stupid  manner.  If  the 
merchant  complained  of  delay,  he  was  told  to  do  better  if  he 
could.  If  he  objected  to  the  rates,  he  was  warned  that  if  he  did 
not  pay  them  promptly  his  goods  might  not  be  carried  at  all. 

The  canal  companies  were  in  a  position  to  dictate  their  own 
terms,  and  they  did  this  in  such  a  way  as  to  disgust  alike  the  send- 
ers and  the  receivers  of  goods,  so  that  both  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester were  up  in  arms  against  them.  "Worse  even  than  the 
heavy  charges  for  goods  was  the  occasional  entire  stoppage  of  the 
canals.  Sometimes  they  were  frozen  up ;  sometimes  they  were 
blocked  by  the  press  of  traffic,  so  that  goods  lay  on  the  wharves 
unmoved  for  weeks  together ;  and  at  some  seasons  it  occupied  a 
longer  time  to  bring  cotton  from  Liverpool  to  Manchester  by  ca- 


248  A  TRAM-ROAD  PROPOSED.— MR.  JAMES.         [PART  II. 

nal-boat  than  it  had  done  to  bring  it  from  New  York  to  Liverpool 
by  sailing  ship. 

Was  there  no  way  of  remedying  these  great  and  admitted  evils  ? 
Were  the  commercial  public  to  continue  to  be  bound  hand  and 
foot,  and  left  at  the  mercy  of  the  canal  proprietors  ?  Immense 
interests  at  Liverpool  and  Manchester  were  at  stake.  The  Liver- 
pool merchants  wanted  new  facilities  for  sending  raw  material 
inland,  and  the  Manchester  manufacturers  for  sending  the  manu- 
factured products  back  to  Liverpool  for  shipment.  Vast  popu- 
lations had  become  settled  in  the  towns  of  South  Lancashire,  to 
whom  it  was  of  vital  importance  that  the  communication  with 
the  sea  should  be  regular,  constant,  and  economical. 

These  considerations  early  led  to  the  discussion  of  some  im- 
proved mode  of  transit  from  Liverpool  into  the  interior  for  heavy 
goods,  and  one  of  the  most  favored  plans  was  that  of  a  tram-road. 
It  was  first  suggested  by  the  corn-merchants  of  Liverpool,  who 
had  experienced  the  great  inconveniences  resulting  from  the  ca- 
nal monopoly.  One  of  the  most  zealous  advocates  of  the  tram- 
road  was  Mr.  Joseph  Sandars,  who  took  considerable  pains  to  as- 
certain the  results  of  the  working  of  the  coal  lines  in  the  North, 
both  by  horse  and  engine  power,  and  he  satisfied  himself  that 
either  method  would,  if  adopted  between  Liverpool  and  Manches- 
ter, afford  the  desired  relief  to  the  commercial  and  manufacturing 
interests.  The  subject  was  ventilated  by  him  in  the  local  papers, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  year  1821  Mr.  Sandars  succeeded  in  get- 
ting together  a  committee  of  Liverpool  gentlemen  for  the  pur- 
pose of  farther  considering  the  subject,  and,  if  found  practicable, 
of  starting  a  company  with  the  object  of  forming  a  tram-road  be- 
tween the  two  towns. 

While  the  project  was  still  in  embryo,  the  rumor  of  it  reached 
the  ears  of  Mr.  William  James,  then  of  West  Bromwich,  an  enthu- 
siastic advocate  of  tram-roads  and  railways.  As  a  land-surveyor 
and  land-agent,  as  well  as  coal-owner,  he  had  already  laid  down 
many  private  railroads.  He  had  also  laid  out  and  superintended 
the  execution  and  the  working  of  canals,  projected  extensive 
schemes  of  drainage  and  inclosure,  and,  on  the  whole,  was  one  of 
the  most  useful  and  active  men  of  his  time.  But  a  series  of  un- 
fortunate speculations  in  mines  having  seriously  impaired  his  for- 
tunes, he  again  reverted  to  his  original  profession  of  land-survey- 


CHAP.  IX.]       MR.  JAMES'S  SURVEY.— OBSTRUCTIONS.  249 

or,  and  was  so  occupied  in  the  neighborhood  of  Liverpool  when 
he  heard  of  the  scheme  set  on  foot  for  the  construction  of  the 
proposed  tram-road  to  Manchester. 

He  at  once  called  upon  Mr.  Sandars  and  offered  his  services  as 
its  surveyor.  "VVe  believe  he  at  first  offered  to  survey  the  line  at 
his  own  expense,  to  which  Mr.  Sandars  could  not  object ;  but  his 
means  were  too  limited  to  enable  him  to  do  this  successfully,  and 
Mr.  Sandars  and  several  of  his  friends  agreed  to  pay  him  £300 
for  the  survey,  or  at  the  rate  of  about  £10  a  mile.  Mr.  James's 
first  interview  with  Mr.  Sandars  was  in  the  beginning  of  July, 
1821,  when  it  was  arranged  that  he  should  go  over  the  ground 
and  form  a  general  opinion  as  to  the  practicability  of  a  tram- 
way. .  •- 

A  trial  survey  was  then  begun,  but  it  was  conducted  with  great 
difficulty,  the  inhabitants  of  the  district  entertaining  much  prej- 
udice against  the  scheme.  In  some  places  Mr.  James  and  his 
surveying  party  had  even  to  encounter  personal  violence.  At  St. 
Helen's  one  of  the  chain-men  was  laid  hold  of  by  a  mob  of  col- 
liers, and  tlireatened  to  be  hurled  down  a  coal-pit.  A  number 
of  men,  women,  and  children  assembled,  and  ran  after  the  sur- 
veyors wherever  they  made  their  appearance,  bawling  nicknames 
and  throwing  stones  at  them.  As  one  of  the  chain-men  was 
climbing  over  a  gate  one  day,  a  laborer  made  at  him  with  a  pitch- 
fork, and  ran  it  through  his  clothes  into  his  back ;  other  watchers 
running  up,  the  chain-man,  who  was  more  stunned  than  hurt, 
took  to  his  heels  and  fled.  But  that  mysterious-looking  instru- 
ment— the  theodolite — most  excited  the  fury  of  the  natives,  who 
concentrated  on  the  man  who  carried  it  their  fiercest  execrations 
and  most  offensive  nicknames. 

A  powerful  fellow,  a  noted  bruiser,  was  hired  by  the  surveyors 
to  carry  the  instrument,  with  a  view  to  its  protection  against  all 
assailants ;  but  one  day  an  equally  powerful  fellow,  a  St.  Helen's 
collier,  cock  of  the  walk  in  his  neighborhood,  made  up  to  the 
theodolite  bearer  to  wrest  it  from  him  by  sheer  force.  A  battle 
took  place,  the  collier  was  soundly  pommeled,  but  the  natives 
poured  in  volleys  of  stones  upon  the  surveyors  and  their  instru- 
ments, and  the  theodolite  was  smashed  in  pieces. 

Met  by  these  and  other  obstructions,  it  turned  out  that  the  sur- 
vey could  not  be  completed  in  time  for  depositing  the  proper 


250  MR.  JAMES  VISITS  KILLING  WORTH. 

plans,  and  the  intended  application  to  Parliament  in  the  next  ses- 
sion could  not  be  made.  In  the  mean  time,  Mr.  James  proceeded 
to  Killingworth  to  see  Stephenson's  locomotives  at  work.  Ste- 
phenson  was  not  at  home  at  the  time,  but  James  saw  his  engines, 
and  was  very  much  struck  by  their  power  and  efficiency.  He 
saw  at  a  glance  the  magnificent  uses  to  which  the  locomotive 
might  be  applied.  "  Here,"  said  he, "  is  an  engine  that  will,  be- 
fore long,  effect  a  complete  revolution  in  society."  Keturning  to 
Moreton-in-the-Marsh,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Losh  (Stephenson's  partner 
in  the  patent)  expressing  his  admiration  of  the  Killingworth  en- 
gine. "  It  is,"  said  he,  "  the  greatest  wonder  of  the  age,  and  the 


MAP  OF  LIVEBPOOL  AND  MANCHESTER  EAILWAY.      [Western  Part.] 


forerunner,  as  I  firmly  believe,  of  the  most  important  changes  in 
the  internal  communications  of  the  kingdom."  Shortly  after, 
Mr.  James,  accompanied  by  his  two  sons,  made  a  second  journey 
to  Killingworth,  where  he  met  both  Losh  and  Stephenson.  The 
visitors  were  at  once  taken  to  where  one  of  the  locomotives  was 
working,  and  invited  to  "jump  up."  The  uncouth  and  extraor- 
dinary appearance  of  the  machine.,  as  it  came  snorting  along,  was 
somewhat  alarming  to  the  youths,  who  expressed  their  fears  lest 
it  should  burst ;  and  they  were  with  some  difficulty  induced  to 
mount. 

The  engine  went  through  its  usual  performances,  dragging  a 
heavy  load  of  coal-wagons  at  about  six  miles  an  hour  with  ap- 
parent ease,  at  which  Mr.  James  expressed  his  extreme  satisf ac- 


CHAP.  EX.] 


AGREEMENT  WITH  MR.  JAMES. 


251 


tion,  and  declared  to  Mr.  Lost  his  opinion  that  Stephenson  "  was 
the  greatest  practical  genius  of  the  age,"  and  that, "  if  he  devel- 
oped the  full  powers  of  that  engine  (the  locomotive),  his  fame  in 
the  world  would  rank  equal  with  that  of  Watt."  Mr.  James  in- 
formed Stephenson  and  Losh  of  his  survey  of  the  proposed  tram- 
road  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  and  did  not  hesitate  to 
state  that  he  would  thenceforward  advocate  the  construction  of  a 
locomotive  railroad  instead  of  the  tram-road  which  had  original- 
ly been  proposed. 

Stephenson  and  Losh  were  naturally  desirous  of  enlisting 
James's  good  services  on  behalf  of  their  patent  locomot^e,  for 


MAP   OF   LIVEBPOOL  AND  MANCHESTER 


Y.    [Eastern  Part.] 


as  yet  it  had  proved  comparatively  unproductive.  They  believed 
that  he  might  be  able  so  to  advocate  it  in  influential  quarters  as 
to  insure  its  more  extensive  adoption,  and  with  that  object  they 
proposed  to  give  him  an  interest  in  the  patent.  Accordingly, 
they  entered  into  an  agreement  by  which  they  assigned  to*him 
one  fourth  of  any  profits  which  might  be  derived  from  the  use 
of  the  patent  locomotive  on  any  railways  constructed  south  of  a 
line  drawn  across  England  from  Liverpool  to  Hull.  The  arrange- 
ment, however,  led  to  no  beneficial  results.  Mr.  James  endeavor- 
ed to  introduce  the  engine  on  the  Moreton-on-Marsh  Railway, 
but  it  was  opposed  by  the  engineer  of  the  line,  and  the  attempt 
failed.  He  next  urged  that  a  locomotive  should  be  sent  for  trial 
upon  the  Merstham  tram-road ;  but,  anxious  though  Stephenson 


252  A  SECOND  SURVEY  MADE.  [PART  II. 

was  as  to  its  extended  employment,  he  was  too  cautious  to  risk  an 
experiment  which  might  bring  discredit  upon  the  engine ;  and 
the  Merstham  Eoad  being  only  laid  with  cast-iron  plates  which 
would  not  bear  its  weight,  the  invitation  was  declined. 

The  first  survey  made  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line 
having  been  found  very  imperfect,  it  was  determined  to  have  a 
second  and  more  complete  one  made  in  the  following  year.  Rob- 
ert Stephenson,  though  then  a  lad  of  only  nineteen,  had  already 
obtained  some  practical  knowledge  of  surveying,  having  been  en- 
gaged on  the  preliminary  survey  of  the  Stockton  and  Darlington 
Rail^y  in  the  previous  year,  and  he  was  sent  over  to  Liverpool 
by  his  father  to  give  Mr.  James  such  assistance  as  he  could.  Eob- 
ert  Stephenson  was  present  with  Mr.  James  on  the  occasion  on 
which  he  tried  to  lay  out  the  line  across  Chat  Moss — a  proceed- 
ing which  was  not  only  difficult,  but  dangerous.  The  Moss  was 
very  wet  at  the  time,  and  only  its  edges  could  be  ventured  on. 
Mr.  James  was  a  heavy,  thick-set  man.;  and  one  day,  when  en- 
deavoring to  obtain  a  stand  for  his  theodolite,  he  felt  himself  sud- 
denly sinking.  He  immediately  threw  himself  down,  and  rolled 
over  and  over  until  he  reached  firm  ground  again,  in  a  sad  mess. 
Other  attempts  which  he  subsequently  made  to  advance  into  the 
Moss  for  the  same  purpose  were  abandoned  for  the  same  reason 
— the  want  of  a  solid  stand  for  the  theodolite. 

As  Mr.  James  proceeded  with  his  survey,  he  found  -a  host  of 
opponents  springing  up  in  all  directions,  some  of  whom  he  con- 
ciliated by  deviations,  but  others  refused  to  be  conciliated  on  any 
terms.  Among  these  last  were  Lords  Derby  and  Wilton,  Mr. 
Bradshaw,  and  the  Strafford  family.  The  proposed  line  passed 
through  their  lands,  and,  regarding  it  as  a  nuisance,  without  the 
slightest  compensating  advantage  to  them,  they  determined  to  op- 
pose <t  at  every  stage.  Their  agents  drove  the  surveyors  off  their 
land ;  the  farmers  set  men  at  the  gates  armed  with  pitchforks  to 
resist  their  progress ;  and  the  survey  proceeded  with  great  diffi- 
culty. Mr.  James  endeavored  to  avoid  Lord  Derby's  Knowsley 
estate,  but  as  he  had  received  instructions  from  Messrs.  Ewart 
and  Gladstone  to  lay  out  the  line  so  as  to  enable  it  to  be  extend- 
ed to  the  docks,  he  found  it  difficult  to  accomplish  this  object 
and  at  the  same  time  avert  the  hostility  of  the  noble  lord.  The 
only  large  land-owners  who  gave  the  scheme  their  support  were 


CHAP.  IX.]  MR.  JAMES'S  ENTHUSIASM.  253 

Mr.  Legh  and  Mr.  Wyrley  Birch,  who  not  only  subscribed  for 
shares,  but  attended  several  public  meetings,  and  spoke  in  favor 
of  the  proposed  railroad.  Public  opinion  was,  however,  begin- 
ning to  be  roused,  and  the  canal  companies  began  at  length  to 
feel  alarmed. 

"  At  Manchester,"  Mr.  James  wrote  to  Mr.  Sandars,  "  the  subject 
engages  all  men's  thoughts,  and  it  is  curious  as  well  as  amusing  to 
hear  their  conjectures.  The  canal  companies  (southward)  are  alive 
to  their  danger.  I  have  been  the  object  of  their  persecution  and 
hate ;  they  would  immolate  me  if  they  could ;  but  if  I  can  die  the 
death  of  Samson,  by  pulling  away  the  pillars,  I  am  content  to  die 
with  these  Philistines.  Be  assured,  my  dear^sir,  that  not  a  moment 
shall  be  lost,  nor  shall  my  attention  for  a  day  be  diverted  from  this 
concern,  which  increases  in  importance  every  hour,  as  well  as  hi  the 
certainty  of  ultimate  success." 

Mr.  James  was  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic  of  men,  especially 
about  railways  and  locomotives.  He  believed,  with  Thomas  Gray, 
who  brought  out  his  book  about  this  time,  that  railways  were  yet 
to  become  the  freat  high  roads  of  civilization.  The  speculative 
character  of  the  man  may  be  inferred  from  the  following  passage 
in  one  of  his  letters  to  Mr.  Sandars,  written  from  London : 

"  Every  Parliamentary  friend  I  have  seen — and  I  have  many  of 
both  houses — eulogizes  our  plan,  and  they  are  particularly  anxious 
that  engines  should  be  introduced  in  the  south.  I  am  now  nego- 
tiating about  the  Wandsworth  Railroad.  A  fortune  is  to  be  made 
by  buying  the  shares,  and  introducing  the  engine  system  upon  it. 
I  am  confident  capital  will  treble  itself  in  two  years.  I  do  not 
choose  to  publish  my  views  here,  and  I  wish  to  God  some  of  our 
Liverpool  friends  would  take  this  advantage.  I  have  bought  some 
shares,  but  my  capital  is  locked  up  in  unproductive  lands  and 
mines." 

As  the  survey  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line  proceeded, 
Mr.  James's  funds  fell  short,  and  he  was  under  the  necessity  of 
applying  to  Mr.  Sandars  and  his  friends  from  time  to  time  for 
farther  contributions.  It  was  also  necessary  for  him  to  attend  to 
his  business  as  a  surveyor  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  he 
was  at  such  times  under  the  necessity  of  leaving  the  work  to  be 
done  by  his  assistants.  Thus  the  survey  was  necessarily  imper- 
fect, and  when  the  time  arrived  for  lodging  the  plans,  it  was 


254  STEPHENSON  APPOINTED  ENGINEER.  [PART  II. 

found  that  they  were  practically  worthless.  Mr.  James's  pecu- 
niary difficulties  had  also  reached  their  climax.  "  The  surveys 
and  plans,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Sandars,  "  can't  be  completed,  I  see, 
till  the  end  of  the  week.  With  illness,  anguish  of  mind,  and  in- 
expressible distress,  I  perceive  I  must  sink  if  I  wait  any  longer ; 
and,  in  short,  I  have  so  neglected  the  suit  in  Chancery  I  named 
to  you,  that  if  I  do  not  put  in  an  answer  I  shall  be  outlawed." 

Mr.  James's  embarrassments  increased,  ancl  he  was  unable  to 
shake  himself  free  from  them.  He  was  confined  for  many  months 
in  the  Queen's  Bench  Prison,  during  which  time  this  indefatiga- 
ble railway  propagandist  wrote  an  essay  illustrative  of  the  advan- 
tages of  direct  inlan4  communication  by  a  line  of  engine  rail- 
road between  London,  Brighton,  and  Portsmouth.  Meanwhile 
the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  scheme  seemed  to  have  fallen  to 
the  ground.  But  it  only  slept.  When  its  promoters  found  that 
they  could  no  longer  rely  on  Mr.  James's  services,  they  deter- 
mined to  employ  another  engineer. 

Mr.  Sandars  had  by  this  time  visited  George  Stephenson  at 
Killingworth,  and,  like  all  who  came  within  reach  of  his  personal 
influence,  was  charmed  with  him  at  first  sight.  The  energy  which 
he  had  displayed  in  carrying  on  the  works  of  the  Stockton  and 
Darlington  Eailway,  now  approaching  completion ;  his  readiness 
to  face  difficulties,  and  his  practical  ability  in  overcoming  them ; 
the  enthusiasm  which  he  displayed  on  the  subject  of  railways 
and  railway  locomotion,  concurred  in  satisfying  Mr.  Sandars  that 
he  was,  of  all  men,  the  best  calculated  to  help  forward  the  un- 
dertaking at  this  juncture ;  and  having,  on  his  return  to  Liver- 
pool, reported  this  opinion  to  the  committee,  they  approved  his 
recommendation,  and  George  Stephenson  was  unanimously  ap- 
pointed engineer  of  the  projected  railway.  On  the  25th  of  May, 
1824,  Mr.  Sandars  wrote  to  Mr.  James  as  follows : 

"  I  think  it  right  to  inform  you  that  the  committee  have  engaged 
your  friend  George  Stephenson.  We  expect  him  here  in  a  few 
days.  The  subscription-list  for  £300,000  is  filled,  and  the  Manches- 
ter gentlemen  have  conceded  to  us  the  entire  management.  I  very 
much  regret  that,  by  delays  and  promises,  you  have  forfeited  the 
confidence  of  the  subscribers.  I  can  not  help  it.  I  fear  now  that 
you  will  only  have  the  fame  of  being  connected  with  the  commence- 
ment of  this  undertaking." 


CHAP.  IX.]  A  COMPANY  FORMZP.  255 

It  will  be  observed  that  Mr.  Sandars  had  held  to  his  original 
purpose  with  great  determination  and  perseverance,  and  he  grad- 
ually succeeded  in  enlisting  on  his  side  an  increasing  number 
of  influential  merchants  and  manufacturers  both  at  Liverpool 
and  Manchester.  Early  in  1824  he  published  a  pamphlet,  in 
which  he  strongly  urged  the  great  losses  and  interruptions  to  the 
trade  of  the  district  by  the  delays  in  the  forwarding  of  merchan- 
dise ;  and  in  the  same  year  he  had  a  Public  Declaration  drawn 
up,  and  signed  by  up  ward,  of  150  of  the  principal  merchants  of 
Liverpool,  setting  forth  that  they  considered  "  the  present  estab- 
lishments for  the  transport  of  goods  quite  inadequate,  and  that  a 
new  line  of  conveyance  has  become  absolutely  necessary  to  con- 
duct the  increasing  trade  of  the  country  with  speed,  certainty, 
and  economy." 

A  public  meeting  was  then  held  to  consider  the  best  plan  to 
be  adopted,  and  resolutions  were  passed  in  favor  of  a  railroad. 
A  committee  was  appointed  to  take  the  necessary  measures ;  but, 
as  if  reluctant  to  enter  upon  their  arduous  struggle  with  the 
"  vested  interests,"  they  first  waited  on  Mr.  Bradshaw,  the  Duke 
of  Bridgewater's  canal  agent,  in  the  hope  of  persuading  him  to  in- 
crease the  means  of  conveyance,  as  well  as  to  reduce  the  charges ; 
but  they  were  met  by  an  unqualified  refusal.  He  would  not  im- 
prove the  existing  means  of  conveyance ;  he  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  proposed  railway ;  and,  if  persevered  in,  he  would 
oppose  it  with  all  his  power.  The  canal  proprietors,  confident  in 
their  imagined  security,  ridiculed  the  proposed  railway  as  a  chim- 
era. It  had  been  spoken  about  years  before,  and  nothing  had 
come  of  it  then ;  it  would  be  the  same  now. 

In  order  to  form  a  better  opinion  as  to  the  practicability  of  the 
railroad,  a  deputation  of  gentlemen  interested  in  the  project  pro- 
ceeded to  Killingworth  to  inspect  the  engines  which  had  been  so 
long  in  use  there.  They  first  went  to  Darlington,  where  they 
found  the  works  of  the  Stockton  line  in  progress,  though  still  un- 
finished. Proceeding  next  to  Killingworth  with  George  Stephen- 
son,  they  there  witnessed  the  performances  of  his  locomotive  en- 
gines. The  result  of  their  visit  was,  on  the  whole,  so  satisfactory, 
that  on  their  return  to  Liverpool  it  was  determined  to  form  a 
company  of  the  proprietors  for  the  construction  of  a  double  line 
of  railway  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester. 


256  HENRY  BOOTH.— PROSPECTUS  ISSUED.         [PAET  II. 

The  original  promoters  of  the  undertaking  included  men  of 
the  highest  standing  and  local  influence  in  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester, with  Charles  Lawrence  as  chairman,  Lister  Ellis,  Robert 
Gladstone,  John  Moss,  and  Joseph  Sandars  as  deputy  chairmen ; 
while  among  the  ordinary  members  of  the  committee  were  Rob- 
ert Benson,  James  Cropper,  John  Ewart,  Wellwood  Maxwell,  and 
William  Rathbone,  of  Liverpool,  and  the  brothers  Birley,  Peter 
Ewart,  William  Garnett,  John  Kennedy,  and  William  Potter,  of 
Manchester. 

The  committee  also  included  another  important  name — that  of 
Henry  Booth,  then  a  corn-merchant  of  Liverpool,  and  afterward 
the  secretary  and  manager  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Rail- 
way. Mr.  Booth  was  a  man  of  admirable  business  qualities,  sa- 
gacious and  far-seeing,  shrewd  and  practical,  of  considerable  lit- 
erary ability,  and  he  also  possessed  a  knowledge  of  mechanics, 
which  afterward  proved  of  the  greatest  value  to  the  railway  in- 
terest; for  to  him  we  owe  the  suggestion  of  the  multitubular 
boiler  in  the  form  in  which  it  has  since  been  employed  upon  all 
railways,  and  the  coupling-screw,  as  well  as  other  important  me- 
chanical appliances  which  have  come  into  general  use. 

The  first  prospectus,  issued  in  October,  1824,  set  forth  in  clear 
and  vigorous  language  the  objects  of  the  company,  the  urgent 
need  of  additional  means  of  communication  between  Liverpool 
and  Manchester,  and  the  advantages  offered  by  the  railway  over 
all  other  proposed  expedients.  It  was  shown  that  the  water-car- 
riers not  only  exacted  the  most  arbitrary  terms  from  the  public, 
but  were  positively  unable  to  carry  the  traffic  requiring  accom- 
modation. Against  the  indefinite  continuance  or  recurrence  of 
those  evils,  said  the  prospectus,  the  public  have  but  one  security : 
"  It  is  competition  that  is  wanted ;  and  the  proof  of  this  assertion 
may  be  adduced  from  the  fact  that  shares  in  the  Old  Quay  Nav- 
igation, of  which  the  original  cost  was  £70,  have  been  sold  as  high 
as  £1250  each !"  The  advantages  of  the  railway  over  the  canals 
for  the  carriage  of  coals  was  also  urged,  and  it  was  stated  that 
the  charge  for  transit  would  be  very  materially  reduced. 

"  In  the  present  state  of  trade  and  of  commercial  enterprise  (the 
prospectus  proceeded),  dispatch  is  no  less  essential  than  economy. 
Merchandise  is  frequently  brought  across  the  Atlantic  from  Xew 
York  to  Liverpool  in  twenty-one  days,  while,  owing  to  the  various 


CHAP.  IX.]  OBJECT  OF  THE  UNDERTAKING.  257 

causes  of  delay  above  enumerated,  goods  have  in  some  instances 
been  longer  on  their  passage  from  Liverpool  to  Manchester.  But 
this  reproach  must  not  be  perpetual.  The  advancement  in  mechan- 
ical science  renders  it  unnecessary — the  good  sense  of  the  commu- 
nity makes  it  impossible.  Let  it  not,  however,  be  imagined  that, 
were  England  to  be  tardy,  other  countries  would  pause  in  the  march 
of  improvement.  Application  has  been  made,  on  behalf  of  the  Em- 
peror of  Russia,  for  models  of  the  locomotive  engine;  and  other  of 
the  Continental  governments  have  been  duly  apprised  of  the  im- 
portant schemes  for  the  facilitating  of  inland  traffic,  now  under  dis- 
cussion by  the  British  public.  In  the  United  States  of  America, 
also,  they  are  fully  alive  to  the  important  results  to  be  anticipated 
from  the  introduction  of  railroads ;  a  gentleman  from  the  United 
States  having  recently  arrived  in  Liverpool,  with  whom  it  is  a  prin- 
cipal object  to  collect  the  necessary  information  in  order  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  railway  to  connect  the  great  rivers  Potomac  and 
Ohio." 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  principal,  indeed  almost  the  sole, 
object  contemplated  by  the  projectors  of  the  undertaking  was  the 
improved  carriage  of  merchandise  and  coal,  and  that  the  convey- 
ance of  passengers  was  scarcely  calculated  on,  the  only  paragraph 
in  the  prospectus  relating  to  the  subject  being  the  following: 
"  Moreover,  as  a  cheap  and  expeditious  means  of  conveyance  for 
travelers,  the  railway  holds  out  the  fair  prospect  of  a  public  ac- 
commodation, the  magnitude  and  importance  of  which  can  not 
be  immediately  ascertained."  The  estimated  expense  of  forming 
the  line  was  set  down  at  £400,000 — a  sum  which  was  eventually 
found  quite  inadequate.  The  subscription  list,  when  opened,  was 
filled  up  without  difficulty. 

While  the  project  was  still  under  discussion,  its  promoters,  de- 
sirous of  removing  the  doubts  which  existed  as  to  the  employ- 
ment of  steam-power  on  the  proposed  railway,  sent  a  second  dep- 
utation to  Killingworth  for  the  purpose  of  again  observing  the 
action  of  Stephenson's  engines.  The  cautious  projectors  of  the 
railway  were  not  yet  quite  satisfied,  and  a  third  journey  was 
made  to  Killingworth  in  January,  1825,  by  several  gentlemen  of 
the  committee,  accompanied  by  practical  engineers,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  being  personal  eye-witnesses  of  what  steam-carriages  were 
able  to  perf onn  upon  a  railway.  There  they  saw  a  train,  consist- 
R 


258  RESISTANCE  TO  THE  SURVEY.  [PABT  II, 

ing  of  a  locomotive  and  loaded  wagons,  weighing  in  all  54  tons, 
traveling  at  the  average  rate  of  about  7  miles  an  hour,  the  great- 
est speed  being  about  9£  miles  an  hour.  But  when  the  engine 
was  run  with  only  one  wagon  attached  containing  twenty  gentle- 
men, five  of  whom  were  engineers,  the  speed  attained  was  from 
10  to  12  miles  an  hour. 

In  the  mean  time  the  survey  was  proceeded  with,  in  the  face 
of  great  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  proprietors  of  the  lands 
through  which  the  railway  was  intended  to  pass.  The  prejudices 
of  the  farming  and  laboring  classes  were  strongly  excited  against 
the  persons  employed  upon  the  ground,  and  it  was  with  the  great- 
est difficulty  that  the  levels  could  be  taken.  This  opposition  was 
especially  manifested  when  the  attempt  was  made  to  survey  the 
line  through  the  properties  of  Lords  Derby  and  Sefton,  and  also 
where  it  crossed  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater's  Canal.  At  Knowsley, 
Stephenson  and  his  surveyors  were  driven  off  the  ground  by  the 
keepers,  and  threatened  with  rough  handling  if  found  there  again. 
Lord  Derby's  farmers  also  turned  out  their  men  to  watch  the  sur- 
veying party,  and  prevent  them  entering  on  any  lands  where  they 
had  the  power  of  driving  them  off.  Afterward  Stephenson  sud- 
denly and  unexpectedly  went  upon  the  ground  with  a  body  of 
surveyors  and  their  assistants  who  outnumbered  Lord  Derby's 
keepers  and  farmers,  hastily  collected  to  resist  them,  and  this  time 
they  were  only  threatened  with  the  legal  consequences  of  their 
trespass. 

The  same  sort  of  resistance  was  offered  by  Lord  Sefton's  keep- 
ers and  farmers,  with  whom  the  following  ruse  was  adopted.  A 
minute  was  concocted,  purporting  to  be  a  resolution  of  the  Old 
Quay  Canal  Company  to  oppose  the  projected  railroad  by  every 
possible  means,  and  calling  upon  land-owners  and  others  to  afford 
every  facility  for  making  such  a  survey  of  the  intended  line  as 
should  enable  the  opponents  to  detect  errors  in  the  scheme  of  the 
promoters,  and  thereby  insure  its  defeat.  A  copy  of  this  minute, 
without  any  signature,  was  exhibited  by  the  surveyors  who  went 
upon  the  ground,  and  the  farmers,  believing  them  to  have  the 
sanction  of  the  landlords,  permitted  them  to  proceed  with  the 
hasty  completion  of  their  survey. 

The  principal  opposition,  however,  was  experienced  from  Mr. 
Bradshaw,  the  manager  of  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater's  canal  prop- 


CHA*.IX.]  OPPOSITION  AT  MANCHESTER.  259 

erty,  who  offered  a  vigorous  and  protracted  resistance  to  the  sur- 
vey in  all  its  stages.  The  duke's  farmers  obstinately  refused  per- 
mission to  enter  upon  their  fields,  although  Stephenson  offered  to 
pay  for  any  damage  that  might  be  done.  Mr.  Bradshaw  posi- 
tively refused  his  sanction  in  any  case ;  and  being  a  strict  pre- 
server of  game,  with  a  large  staff  of  keepers  in  his  pay,  he  de- 
clared that  he  would  order  them  to  shoot  or  apprehend  any  per- 
sons attempting  a  survey  over  his  property.  But  one  moonlight 
night  a  survey  was  effected  by  the  following  ruse.  Some  men, 
under  the  orders  of  the  surveying  party,  were  set  to  fire  off  guns 
in  a  particular  quarter,  on  which  all  the  gamekeepers  on  the 
watch  made  off  in  that  direction,  and  they  were  drawn  away  to 
such  a  distance  in  pursuit  of  the  supposed  poachers  as  to  enable 
a  rapid  survey  to  be  made  during  their  absence.  Describing  be- 
fore Parliament  the  difficulties  which  he  encountered  in  making 
the  survey,  Stephenson  said :  "  I  was  threatened  to  be  ducked  in 
the  pond  if  I  proceeded,  and,  of  course,  we  had  a  great  deal  of 
the  survey  to  take  by  stealth,  at  the  time  when  the  people  were 
at  dinner.  "We  could  not  get  it  done  by  night ;  indeed,  we  were 
watched  day  and  night,  and  guns  were  discharged  over  the 
grounds  belonging  to  Captain  Bradshaw  to  prevent  us.  I  can 
state 'farther  that  I  was  myself  twice  turned  off  Mr.  Bradshaw's 
grounds  by  his  men,  and  they  said  if  I  did  not  go  instantly  they 
would  take  me  up  and  carry  me  off  to  Worsley." 

The  same  kind  of  opposition  had  to  be  encountered  all  along 
the  line  of  the  intended  railway.  Mr.  Clay,  one  of  the  company's 
solicitors,  wrote  to  Mr.  Sandars  from  the  Bridgewater  Arms,  Pres- 
cott,  on  the  31st  of  December,  that  the  landlords,  occupiers,  trus- 
tees of  turnpike  roads,  proprietors  of  bleach-works,  carriers  and 
carters,  and  even  the  coal-owners,  were  dead  against  the  railroad. 
"  In  a  word,"  said  he, "  the  country  is  up  in  arms  against  us." 
There  were  only  three  considerable  land-owners  who  remained 
doubtful ;  and  "  if  these  be  against  us,"  said  Mr.  Clay, "  then  the 
whole  of  the  great  proprietors  along  the  whole  line  are  dissen- 
tient, excepting  only  Mr.  Trafford." 

The  cottagers  and  small  proprietors  were  equally  hostile. 
"  The  trouble  we  have  with  them,"  wrote  Mr.  Clay,  "  is  beyond 
belief ;  and  those  patches  of  gardens  at  the  end  of  Manchester 
bordering  on  the  Irwell,  and  the  tenants  of  Ilulme  Hall,  who, 


260  OPPOSITION  OF  THE  CANAL  COMPANIES.       [PABT.  II. 

though  insignificant,  must  be  seen,  give  us  infinite  trouble,  all  of 
which,  as  I  have  reason  to  believe,  is  by  no  means  accidental." 
There  was  also  the  opposition  of  the  great  Bradshaw,  the  duke's 
agent.  "  I  wrote  you  this  morning,"  said  Mr.  Clay,  in  a  wrathful 
letter  of  the  same  date, "  since  which  we  have  been  into  Brad- 
shaw's  warehouse,  now  called  the  Knot  Mill,  and,  after  traversing 
two  of  the  rooms,  we  got  very  civilly  turned  out,  which,  under  all 
the  circumstances,  I  thought  very  lucky,  and  more  than  we  de- 
served. However,  we  have  seen  more  than  half  of  liis  d — d  cot- 


There  were  also  the  canal  companies,  who  made  common  cause, 
formed  a  common  purse,  and  determined  to  wage  war  to  the  knife 
against  all  railways.  The  following  circular,  issued  by  the  Liv- 
erpool Kailroad  Company,  with  the  name  of  Mr.  Lawrence,  the 
chairman,  attached,  will  serve  to  show  the  resolute  spirit  in  which 
the  canal  proprietors  were  preparing  to  resist  the  bill : 

"SiR, — The  Leeds  and  Liverpool,  the  Birmingham,  the  Grand 
Trunk,  and  other  canal  companies'  having  issued  circulars,  calling 
upon  *  every  canal  and  navigation  company  in  the  kingdom'  to  op- 
pose in  limine  and  by  a  united  effort  the  establishment  of  railroads 
wherever  contemplated,  I  have  most  earnestly  to  solicit  your  active 
exertions  on  bejialf  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railroad  Com- 
pany, to  counteract  the  avowed  purpose  of  the  canal  proprietors,  by 
exposing  the  misrepresentations  of  interested  parties,  by  concilia- 
ting good  will,  and  especially  by  making  known,  as  far  as  you  have 
opportunity,  not  only  the  general  superiority  of  railroads  over  oth- 
er modes  of  conveyance,  but,  in  our  peculiar  case,  the  absolute  ne- 
cessity of  a  new  and  additional  line  of  communication,  in  order  to 
effect  with  economy  and  dispatch  the  transport  of  merchandise  be- 
tween this  port  and  Manchester. 

"  (Signed)  CHARLES  LAWREXCE,  Chairman." 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  and  such  the  threatenings  of  war 
on  both  sides  immediately  previous  to  the  Parliamentary  session 
of  1825. 

When  it  became  known  that  the  promoters  of  the  undertaking 
were  determined — imperfect  though  the  plans  were  believed  to 
be,  from  the  obstructions  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  surveying  par- 
ties— to  proceed  with  the  bill  in  the  next  session  of  Parliament, 
j  the  canal  companies  appealed  to  the  public  through  the  press. 


CHAP.  IX.]  THE  PRESS  AND  THE  RAILWA  Y.  .  261 

Pamphlets  were  published  and  newspapers  hired  to  revile  the  ^ 
railway.  It  was  declared  that  its  formation  would  prevent  the 
cows  grazing  and  hens  laying,  while  the  horses  passing  along  the 
road  would  be  driven  distracted.  The  poisoned  air  from  the 
locomotives  would  kill  the  birds  that  flew  over  them,  and  ren- 
der the  preservation  of  pheasants  and  foxes  no  longer  possible. 
Householders  adjoining  the  projected  line  were  told  that  their 
houses  would  be  burnt  up  by  the  fire  thrown  from  the  engine  \y 
chimneys,  while  the  air  around  would  be  polluted  by  clouds  of 
smoke.  There  would  no  longer  be  any  use  for  horses ;  and  if 
railways  extended,  the  species  would  become  extinguished,  and 
oats  and  hay  be  rendered  unsalable  commodities.  Traveling  by 
rail  would  be  highly  dangerous,  and  country  inns  would  be  ruin- 
ed. Boilers  would  burst  and  blow  passengers  to  atoms.  But 
there  was  always  this  consolation  to  wind  up  with — that  the 
weight  of  the  locomotive  would  completely  prevent  its  moving, 
and  that  railways,  even  if  made,  could  never  be  worked  by  steam- 
power. 

Although  the  press  generally  spoke  of  the  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester project  as  a  mere  speculation — as  only  one  of  the  many 
bubble  schemes  of  the  period* — there  were  other  writers  who  en- 
tertained different  views,  and  boldly  and  ably  announced  them. 
Among  the  most  sagacious  newspaper  articles  of  the  day,  calling 
attention  to  the  application  of  the  locomotive  engine  to  the  pur- 
poses of  rapid  steam-traveling  on  railroads,  was  a  series  which  ap-  ./ 
peared  in  1824,  in  the  "  Scotsman"  newspaper,  then  edited  by  Mr. 
Charles  Maclaren.  In  those  publications  the  wonderful  powers  of 
the  locomotive  were  logically  demonstrated,  and  the  writer,  argu- 
ing from  the  experiments  on  friction  made  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury before  by  Vince  and  Coulomb,  which  scientific  men  seemed 
to  have  altogether  lost  sight  of,  clearly  showed  that,  by  the  use  of 
steam-power  on  railroads,  the  cheaper  as  well  as  more  rapid  tran- 
sit of  persons  and  merchandise  might  be  confidently  anticipated. 

*  "  Many  years  ago  I  met  in  a  public  library  with  a  bulky  volume,  consisting  of  the 
prospectuses  of  various  projects  bound  up  together,  and  labeled, '  Some  of  the  Bubbles 
of  182").'  Among  the  projects  thus  described  was  one  that  has  since  been  productive 
of  the  greatest  and  most  rapid  advance  in  the  social  condition  of  mankind  effected 
since  the  first  dawn  of  civilization :  it  was  the  plan  of  the  company  for  constructing 
a  railway  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester." — \V.  B.  Hodge,  in  "Journal  of  the 
Institute  of  Actuaries,"  Xo.  40,  July,  I860. 


262  SIR  JOHN  BARROW'S  IDEAS.  [PAKT  II. 

Not  many  years  passed  before  the  anticipations  of  the  writer, 
sanguine  and  speculative  though  they  were  at  that  time  regarded, 
were  amply  realized.  Even  Mr.  Nicholas  Wood,  in  1825,  speak- 
ing of  the  powers  of  the  locomotive,  and  referring  doubtless  to 
the  speculations  of  the  "  Scotsman"  as  well  as  of  his  equally  san- 
guine friend  Stephenson,  observed :  "  It  is  far  from  my  wish  to 
promulgate  to  the  world  that  the  ridiculous  expectations,  or  rath-, 
er  professions,  of  the  enthusiastic  speculist  will  be  realized,  and 
that  we  shall  see  engines  traveling  at  the  rate  of  twelve,  sixteen, 
eighteen,  or  twenty  miles  an  hour.  Nothing  could  do  more  harm 
toward  their  general  adoption  and  improvement  than  the  promul- 
gation of  such  nonsense."* 

Among  the  papers  left  by  Mr.  Sandars  we  find  a  letter  ad- 
dressed to  him  by  Sir  John  Barrow,  of  the  Admiralty,  as  to  the 
proper  method  of  conducting  the  case  in  Parliament,  which  pret- 
ty accurately  represents  the  state  of  public  opinion  as  to  the  prac- 
ticability of  locomotive  traveling  on  railroads  at  the  time  at 
which  it  was  written,  the  10th  of  January,  1825.  Sir  John 
strongly  urged  Mr.  Sandars  to  keep  the  locomotive  altogether  in 
the  background ;  to  rely  upon  the  proved  inability  of  the  canals 
and  common  roads  to  accommodate  the  existing  traffic ;  and  to 
be  satisfied  with  proving  the  absolute  necessity  of  a  new  line  of 
conveyance ;  above  all,  he  recommended  him  not  even  to  hint  at 
the  intention  of  carrying  passengers. 

"  You  will  at  once,"  said  he,  "  raise  a  host  of  enemies  in  the  pro- 
prietors of  coaches,  post-chaises,  innkeepers,  etc.,  whose  interests 
will  be  attacked,  and  who,  I  have  no  doubt,  will  be  strongly  sup- 
ported, and  for  what  ?  Some  thousands  of  passengers,  you  say — 
but  a  few  hundreds  I  should  say — in  the  year." 

He  accordingly  urged  that  passengers  as  well  as  speed  should 
be  kept  entirely  out  of  the  act ;  but,  if  the  latter  were  insisted  on, 
then  he  recommended  that  it  should  be  kept  as  low  as  possible — 
say  at  five  miles  an  hour ! 

Indeed,  when  George  Stephenson,  at  the  interviews  with  coun- 
sel held  previous  to  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Bill  going  into 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  confidently  stated  his  ex- 
pectation of  being  able  to  run  his  locomotive  at  the  rate  of  twen- 
ty miles  an  hour,  Mr.  William  Brougham,  who  was  retained  by 

*  "  Wood  on  Kailroads,"  ed.  1825,  p.  290. 


CHAP.  IX.]       PUBLIC  OPINION  AGAINST  RAIL  WA  YS.  263 

the  promoters  to  conduct  their  case,  frankly  told  him  that  if  he 
did  not  moderate  his  views,  and  bring  his  engine  within  a  reason- 
able speed,  he  would  "inevitably  damn  the  whole  thing,  and  be 
himself  regarded  as  a  maniac  fit  only  for  Bedlam." 

The  idea  thrown  out  by  Stephenson  of  traveling  at  a  rate  of 
speed  double  that  of  the  fastest  mail-coach  appeared  at  the  time 
so  preposterous  that  he  was  unable  to  find  any  engineer  who 
would  risk  his  reputation  in  supporting  such  "  absurd  views." 
Speaking  of  his  isolation  at  the  time,  he  subsequently  observed  at 
a  public  meeting  of  railway  men  in  Manchester :  "  He  remem- 
bered the  time  when  he  had  very  few  supporters  in  bringing  out 
the  railway  system — when  he  sought  England  over  for  an  engi- 
neer to  support  him  in  his  evidence  before  Parliament,  and  could 
find  only  one  man,  James  Walker,  but  was  afraid  to  call  that  gen- 
tleman, because  he  knew  nothing  about  railways.  He  had  then 
no  one  to  tell  his  tale  to  but  Mr.  Sandars,  of  Liverpool,  who  did 
listen  to  him,  and  kept  his  spirits  up ;  and  his  schemes  had  at 
length  been  carried  out  only  by  dint  of  sheer  perseverance." 

George  Stephenson's  idea  was*  at  that  time  regarded  as  but  the 
dream  of  a  chimerical  projector.  It  stood  before  the  public 
friendless,  struggling  hard  to  gain  a  footing,  scarcely  daring  to 
lift  itself  into  notice  for  fear  of  ridicule.  The  civil  engineers 
generally  rejected  the  notion  of  a  Locomotive  Railway ;  and 
when  no  leading  man  of  the  day  could  be  found  to  stand  for- 
ward in  support  of  the  Killingworth  mechanic,  its  chances  of 
success  must  indeed  have  been  pronounced  but  small. 

When  such  was  the  hostility  of  the  civil  engineers,  no  wonder 
the  Reviewers  were  puzzled.  The  "  Quarterly,"  in  an  able  article 
in  support  of  the  projected  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway, 
while  admitting  its  absolute  necessity,  and  insisting  that  there  was 
no  choice  left  but  a  railroad,  on  which  the  journey  between  Liver- 
pool and  Manchester,  whether  performed  by  horses  or  engines, 
would  always  be  accomplished  "  within  the  day,"  nevertheless 
scouted  the  idea  of  traveling  at  a  greater  speed  than  eight  or 
nine  miles  an  hour.  Adverting  to  a  project  for  forming  a  rail- 
way to  Woolwich,  by  which  passengers  were  to  be  drawn  by  lo- 
comotive engines  moving  with  twice  the  velocity  of  ordinary 
coaches,  the  reviewer  observed :  "  What  can  be  more  palpably 
absurd  and  ridiculous  than  the  prospect  held  out  of  locomotives 


264     FA  THER  THAMES  BA  CKED  A  GAINST  RAIL  WA  YS.  [PART  II. 

traveling  twice  as  fast  as  stage-coaches !  We  would  as  soon  ex- 
pect the  people  of  Woolwich  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  tired  off 
upon  one  of  Congreve's  ricochet  rockets,  as  trust  themselves  to  the 
mercy  of  such  a  machine  going  at  such  a  rate.  We  will  back  old 
Father  Thames  against  the  Woolwich  Railway  for  any  sum.  We 
trust  that  Parliament  will,  in  all  railways  it  may  sanction,  limit 
the  speed  to  eight  or  nine  miles  an  hour,  which  we  entirely  agree 
with  Mr.  Sylvester  is  as  great  as  can  be  ventured  on  with  safety." 


SURVEYING   <XN    CUAT  -MOSS. 


CHAP.X.]  THE  PARLIAMENTARY  CONTEST.  265 


CHAPTER  X. 

PARLIAMENTARY    CONTEST   ON   THE    LIVEEPOOL   AND   MANCHESTER 
BILL. 

THE  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Bill  went  into  Committee  of 
the  House  of  Commons  on  the  21st  of  March,  1825.  There  was 
an  extraordinary  array  of  legal  talent  on  the  occasion,  but  es- 
pecially on  the  side  of  the  opponents  to  the  measure.  Their 
wealth  and  influence  enabled  them  to  retain  the  ablest  counsel 
at  the  bar ;  Mr.  (afterward  Baron)  Alderson,  Mr.  Stephenson,  Mr. 
(afterward  Baron)  Parke,  Mr.  Rose,  Mr.  Macdonnell,Mr.  Harrison, 
Mr.  Erie,  and  Mr.  Cullen,  appeared  for  various  clients,  who  made 
common  cause  with  each  other  in  opposing  the  bill,  the  case  for 
which  was  conducted  by  Mr.  Adam,  Mr.  Sergeant  Spankie,  Mr. 
William  Brougham,  and  Mr.  Joy. 

Evidence  was  taken  at  great  length  as  to  the  difficulties  and 
delays  in  forwarding  raw  goods  of  all  kinds  from  Liverpool  to 
Manchester,  as  also  in  the  conveyance  of  manufactured  articles 
from  Manchester  to  Liverpool.  The  evidence  adduced  in  sup- 
port of  the  bill  on  these  grounds  was  overwhelming.  The  utter 
inadequacy  of  the  existing  modes  of  conveyance  to  carry  on  sat- 
isfactorily the  large  and  rapidly-growing  trade  between  the  two 
towns  was  fully  proved.  But  then  came  the  main  difficulty  of 
the  promoters'  case — that  of  proving  the  practicability  of  con- 
structing a  railroad  to  be  worked  by  locomotive  power.  Mr. 
Adam,  in  his  opening  speech,  referred  to  the  cases  of  the  Hetton 
and  the  Killingworth  railroads,  where  heavy  goods  were  safely 
and  economically  transported  by  means  of  locomotive  engines. 
4<  None  of  the  tremendous  consequences,"  he  observed,  "  have 
ensued  from  the  use  of  steam  in  land  carriage  that  have  been 
stated.  The  horses  have  not  started,  nor  the  cows  ceased  to  give 
their  milk,  nor  have  ladies  miscarried  at  the  sight  of  these  things 
going  forward  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  and  a  half  an  hour." 
Notwithstanding  the  petition  of  two  ladies  alleging  the  great 


266  GEORGE  STEPHENSON  AS  WITNESS.  [PART  II. 

danger  to  be  apprehended  from  the  bursting  of  the  locomotive 
boilers,  he  urged  the  safety  of  the  high-pressure  engine  when  the 
boilers  were  constructed  of  wrought  iron ;  and  as  to  the  rate  at 
which  they  could  travel,  he  expressed  his  full  conviction  that 
such  engines  "  could  supply  force  to  drive  a  carriage  at  the  rate 
of  five  or  six  miles  an  hour." 

The  taking  of  the  evidence  as  to  the  impediments  thrown  in 
the  way  of  trade  and  commerce  by  the  existing  system  extended 
over  a  month,  and  it  was  the  21st  of  April  before  the  committee 
went  into  the  engineering  evidence,  which  was  the  vital  part  of 
the  question. 

On  the  25th  George  Stephenson  was  called  into  the  witness- 
box.  It  was  his  first  appearance  before  a  committee  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  he  well  knew  what  he  had  to  expect.  He  was 
aware  that  the  whole  force  of  the  opposition  was  to  be  directed 
against  him  ;  and  if  they  could  break  down  his  evidence,  the  ca- 
nal monopoly  might  yet  be  upheld  for  a  time.  Many  years  aft- 
erward, when  looking  back  at  his  position  on  this  trying  occasion, 
he  said :  "  When  I  went  to  Liverpool  to  plan  a  line  from  thence 
to  Manchester,  I  pledged  myself  to  the  directors  to  attain  a  speed 
of  ten  miles  an  hour.  I  said  I  had  no  doubt  the  locomotive 
might  be  made  to  go  much  faster,  but  that  we  had  better  be 
moderate  at  the  beginning.  The  directors  said  I  was  quite  right ; 
for  that  if,  when  they  went  to  Parliament,  I  talked  of  going  at  a 
greater  rate  than  ten  miles  an  hour,  I  should  put  a  cross  upon 
the  concern.  It  was  not  an  easy  task  for  me  to  keep  the  engine 
down  to  ten  miles  an  hour,  but  it  must  be  done,  and  I  did  my 
best.  I  had  to  place  myself  in  that  most  unpleasant  of  all  posi- 
tions— the  witness-box  of  a  Parliamentary  committee.  I  was  not 
long  in  it  before  I  began  to  wish  for  a  hole  to  creep  out  at !  I 
could  not  find  words  to  satisfy  either  the  committee  or  myself. 
I  was  subjected  to  the  cross-examination  of  eight  or  ten  barris- 
ters, purposely,  as  far  as  possible,  to  bewilder  me.  Some  mem- 
ber of  the  committee  asked  if  I  was  a  foreigner  *  and  another 

*  George's  Northumberland  "burr"  was  so  strong  that  it  rendered  him  almost  un- 
intelligible to  persons  who  were  unfamiliar  with  it ;  and  he  had  even  thoughts  of 
going  to  school  again,  for  the  purpose,  if  possible,  of  getting  rid  of  it.  In  the  year 
1823,  when  Stephenson  was  forty -two  years  of  age,  we  find  his  friend  Thomas 
Richardson,  of  Lombard  Street,  writing  to  Samuel  Thoroughgood,  a  schoolmaster 
at  Peckham,  as  follows:  "DEAR  FRIEND,— My  friend  George  Stephenson,  a  mau 


hinted  that  /  was  mad.  But  I  put  up  with  every  rebuff,  and 
went  on  with  my  plans,  determined  not  to  be  put  down." 

George  Stephenson  stood  before  the  committee  to  prove  what 
the  public  opinion  of  that  day  held  to  be  impossible.  The  self- 
taught  mechanic  had  to  demonstrate  the  practicability  of  accom- 
plishing that  which  the  most  distinguished  engineers  of  the  time 
regarded  as  impracticable.  Clear  though  the  subject  was  to  him- 
self, and  familiar  as  he  was  with  the  powers  of  the  locomotive,  it 
was  no  easy  task  for  him  to  bring  home  his  convictions,  or  even 
to  convey  his  meaning,  to  the  less  informed  minds  of  his  hearers. 
In  his  strong  Northumbrian  dialect,  he  struggled  for  utterance, 
in  the  face  of  the  sneers,  interruptions,  and  ridicule  of  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  measure,  and  even  of  the  committee,  some  of  whom 
shook  their  heads  and  whispered  doubts  as  to  his  sanity  when  he 
energetically  avowed  that  he  could  make  the  locomotive  go  at 
the  rate  of  twelve  miles  an  hour !  It  was  so  grossly  in  the  teeth 
of  all  the  experience  of  honorable  members,  that  the  man  "  must 
certainly  be  laboring  under  a  delusion !" 

And  yet  his  large  experience  of  railways  and  locomotives,  as 
described  by  himself  to  the  committee,  entitled  this  "  untaught, 
inarticulate  genius,"  as  he  has  been  described,  to  speak  with  con- 
fidence on  the  subject.  Beginning  with  his  experience  as  a 
brakesman  at  Killingworth  in  1803,  he  went  on  to  state  that  he 
was  appointed  to  take  the  entire  charge  of  the  steam-engines  in 
1813,  and  had  superintended  the  railroads  connected  with  the 
numerous  collieries  of  the  Grand  Allies  from  that  time  down- 
ward. He  had  laid  down  or  superintended  the  railways  at  Bur- 
radon,  Mount  Moor,  Springwell,  Bedlington,  Hetton,  and  Dar- 
lington, besides  improving  those  at  Killingworth,  South  Moor, 
and  Derwent  Crook.  He  had  constructed  fifty-five  steam-en- 
gines, of  which  sixteen  were  locomotives.  Some  of  these  had 
been  sent  to  France.  The  engines  constructed  by  him  for  the 
working  of  the  Killingworth  Kailroad,  eleven  years  before,  had 
continued  steadily  at  work  ever  since,  and  fulfilled  his  most  san- 

of  first-rate  abilities  as  an  engineer,  but  of  little  or  no  education,  wants  to  consult 
thee  or  some  other  person  to  see  if  he  can  not  improve  himself — he  has  so  much 
Northumberland  dialect,  etc.  He  mil  be  at  my  house  on  sixth  day  next,  about  five 
o'clock,  if  thou  could  make  it  convenient  to  see  him.  Thy  assured  friend,  THOS. 
RICHARDSON.  " 


268  MR.  ALDERSON'S  CROSS-EXAMINATION.         [PART  II. 

guine  expectations.  He  was  prepared  to  prove  the  safety  of 
working  high-pressure  locomotives  on  a  railroad,  and  the  supe- 
riority of  this  mode  of  transporting  goods  over  all  others.  As  to 
speed,  he  said  he  had  recommended  eight  miles  an  hour  with 
twenty  tons,  and  four  miles  an  hour  with  forty  tons ;  but  he  was 
quite  confident  that  much  more  might  be  done.  Indeed,  he  had 
no  doubt  they  might  go 'at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles.  As  to  the 
charge  that  locomotives  on  a  railroad  would  so  terrify  the  horses 
in  the  neighborhood  that  to  travel  on  horseback  or  to  plow  the 
adjoining  fields  would  be  rendered  highly  dangerous,  the  witness 
said  that  horses  learned  to  take  no  notice  of  them,  though  there 
were  horses  that  would  shy  at  a  wheelbarrow.  A  mail-coach 
was  likely  to  be  more  shied  at  by  horses  than  a  locomotive.  In 
the  neighborhood  of  Killingworth,  the  cattle  in  the  fields  went 
on  grazing  while  the  engines  passed  them,  and  the  farmers  made 
no  complaints. 

Mr.  Alderson,  who  had  carefully  studied  the  subject,  and  was 
well  skilled  in  practical  science,  subjected  the  witness  to  a  pro- 
tracted and  severe  cross-examination  as  to  the  speed  and  power 
of  the  locomotive,  the  stroke  of  the  piston,  the  slipping  of  the 
wheels  upon  the  rails,  and  various  other  points  of  detail.  Ste- 
phenson  insisted  that  no  slipping  took  place,  as  attempted  to  be 
extorted  from  him  by  the  counsel.  He  said, "  It  is  impossible  for 
slipping  to  take  place  so  long  as  the  adhesive  weight  of  the  wheel 
upon  the  rail  is  greater  than  the  weight  to  be  dragged  after  it." 
There  was  a  good  deal  of  interruption  to  the  witness's  answers 
by  Mr.  Alderson,  to  which  Mr.  Joy  more  than  once  objected.  As 
to  accidents,  Stephenson  knew  of  none  that  had  occurred  with 
his  engines.  There  had  been  one,  he  was  told,  at  the  Middleton 
Colliery,  near  Leeds,  with  a  Blenkinsop  engine.  The  driver  had 
been  in  liquor,  and  put  a  considerable  load  on  the  safety-valve, 
so  that  upon  going  forward  the  engine  blew  up  and  the  man  was 
killed.  But  he  added,  if  proper  precautions  had  been  used  with 
that  boiler,  the  accident  could  not  have  happened.  The  follow- 
ing cross-examination  occurred  in  reference  to  the  question  of 
speed : 

"  Of  course,"  he  was  asked, "  when  a  body  is  moving  upon  a 
road,  the  greater  the  velocity  the  greater  the  momentum  that  is 
generated  ?"  "  Certainly."  «  What  would  be  the  momentum  of 


CHAP.X.]  THE  QUESTION  OF  SPEED.  269 

forty  tons  moving  at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles  an  hour  ?"  "  It 
would  be  very  great."  "  Have  you  seen  a  railroad  that  would 
stand  that?"  "Yes."  "Where?"  "Any  railroad  that  would 
bear  going  four  miles  an  hour :  I  mean  to  say,  that  if  it  would 
bear  the  weight  at  four  miles  an  hour,  it  would  bear  it  at  twelve." 
"  Taking  it  at  four  miles  an  hour,  do  you  mean  to  say  that  it 
would  not  require  a  stronger  railway  to  carry  the  same  weight 
twelve  miles  an  hour  ?"  "  I  will  give  an  answer  to  that.  I  dare 
say  every  person  has  been  over  ice  when  skating,  or  seen  persons 
go  over,  and  they  know  that  it  would  bear  them  better  at  a  great- 
er velocity  than  it  would  if  they  went  slower;  when  they  go 
quick,  the  weight  in  a  measure  ceases."  "  Is  not  than  upon  the 
hypothesis  that  the  railroad  is  perfect  ?"  "  It  is ;  and  I  mean  to 
make  it  perfect." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  state  that  to  have  passed  through  his 
severe  ordeal  scatheless  needed  no  small  amount  of  courage,  in- 
telligence, and  ready  shrewdness  on  the  part  of  the  witness. 
Nicholas  Wood,  who  was  present  on  the  occasion,  has  since  stated 
that  the  point  on  which  Stephenson  was  hardest  pressed  was  that 
of  speed.  "  I  believe,"  he  says, "  that  it  would  have  lost  the  com- 
pany their  bill  if  he  had  gone  beyond  eight  or  nine  miles  an 
hour.  If  he  had  stated  his  intention  of  going  twelve  or  fifteen 
miles  an  hour,  not  a  single  person  would  have  believed  it  to  be 
practicable."  Mr.  Alderson  had,  indeed,  so  pressed  the  point  of 
"  twelve  miles  an  horn*,"  and  the  promoters  were  so  alarmed  lest 
it  should  appear  in  evidence  that  they  contemplated  any  such  ex- 
travagant rate  of  speed,  that  immediately  on  Mr.  Alderson  sitting 
down,  Mr.  Joy  proceeded  to  re-examine  Stephenson,  with  the 
view  of  removing  from  the  minds  of  the  committee  an  impres- 
sion so  unfavorable,  and,  as  they  supposed,  so  damaging  to  their 
case.  "  With  regard,"  asked  Mr.  Joy, "  to  all  those  hypothetical 
questions  of  my  learned  friend,  they  have  been  all  put  on  the 
supposition  of  going  twelve  miles  an  hour:  now  that  is  not  the 
rate  at  which,  I  believe,  any  of  the  engines  of  which  you  have 
'  spoken  have  traveled  ?"  "  Ko,"  replied  Stephenson, "  except  as 
an  experiment  for  a  short  distance."  "  But  what  they  have  gone 
has  been  three,  five,  or  six  miles  an  Jiour  ?"  "  Yes."  "  So  that 
those  hypothetical  cases  of  twelve  miles  an  hour  do  not  fall  with- 
in your  general  experience  ?"  "  They  do  not." 


270  "AWKWARD— FOR  THE  COO /"  [PART  H. 

The  committee  also  seem  to  have  entertained  some  alarm  as  to 
the  high  rate  of  speed  which  had  been  spoken  of,  and  proceeded 
to  examine  the  witness  farther  on  the  subject.  They  supposed 
the  case  of  the  engine  being  upset  when  going  at  nine  miles  an 
hour,  and  asked  what,  in  such  a  case,  would  become  of  the  cargo 
astern.  To  which  the  witness  replied  that  it  would  not  be  upset. 
One  of  the  members  of  the  committee  pressed  the  witness  a  little 
f arther.  He  put  the  following  case :  "  Suppose,  now,  one  of  these 
engines  to  be  going  along  a  railroad  at  the  rate  of  nine  or  ten 
miles  an  hour,  and  that  a  cow  were  to  stray  upon  the  line  and  get 
in  the  way  of  the  engine ;  would  not  that,  think  you,  be  a  very 
awkward  circumstance  ?"  "  Yes,"  replied  the  witness,  with  a 
twinkle  in  his  eye, "  very  awkward — -for  the  coo  /"  The  honor- 
able member  did  not  proceed  farther  with  his  cross-examination ; 
to  use  a  railway  phrase,  he  was  "shunted."  Another  asked  if 
animals  would  not  be  very  much  frightened  by  the  engine  pass- 
ing at  night,  especially  by  the  glare  of  the  red-hot  chimney? 
"  But  how  would  they  know  that  it  wasn't  painted  ?"  said  the 
witness. 

On  the  following  day  (the  26th  of  April)  the  engineer  was 
subjected  to  a  most  severe  examination.  On  that  part  of  the 
scheme  with  which  he  was  most  practically  conversant,  his  evi- 
dence was  clear  and  conclusive.  Now,  he  had  to  give  evidence 
on  the  plans  made  by  his  surveyors,  and  the  estimates  which  had 
been  founded  on  those  plans.  So  long  as  he  was  confined  to 
locomotive  engines  and  iron  railroads,  with  the  minutest  details 
of  which  he  was  more  familiar  than  ajiy  man  living,  he  felt  at 
home  and  in  his  element.  But  when  the  designs  of  bridges  and 
the  cost  of  constructing  them  had  to  be  gone  into,  the  subject  be- 
ing comparatively  new  to  him,  hitf  evidence  was  much  less  satis- 
factory. 

He  was  cross-examined  as  to  the  practicability  of  forming  a 
road  on  so  unstable  a  foundation  as  Chat  Moss. 

" '  Now,  with  respect  to  your  evidence  upon  Chat  Moss,'  asked 
Mr.  Alderson, '  did  you  ever  walk  on  Chat  Moss  on  the  proposed 
line  of  the  railway  ?'     '  The  greater  part  of  it,  I  have.' 
" '  Was  it  not  extremely  boggy  ?'     '  In  parts  it  was.' 
" ' How  deep  did  you  sink  in ?'     'I  could  have  gone  with  shoes ; 
I  do  not  know  whether  I  had  boots  on.' 


CHAP.  X.]  THE  PLANS  DEFECTIVE.  271 

" '  If  the  depth  of  the  Moss  should  prove  to  be  40  feet  instead  of 
20,  would  not  this  plan  of  the  railway  over  this  Moss  be  impracti- 
cable ?'  *  No,  it  would  not.  If  the  gentleman  will  allow  me,  I  will 
refer  to  a  railroad  belonging  to  the  Duke  of  Portland,  made  over  a 
moss ;  there  are  no  levels  to  drain  it  properly,  such  as  we  have  at 
Chat  Moss,  and  it  is  made  by  an  embankment  over  the  moss,  which 
is  worse  than  making  a  cutting,  for  there  is  the  weight  of  the  em- 
bankment to  press  upon  the  moss.' 

" '  Still,  you  must  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  moss  ?'  *  It  is  not  nec- 
essary ;  the  deeper  you  get,  the  more  consolidated  it  is.' 

'"Would  you  put  some  hard  materials  on  it  before  you  com- 
menced ?'  '  Yes,  perhaps  I  should.' 

" '  What  ?'     '  Brushwood,  perhaps.' 

" '  And  you,  then,  are  of  opinion  that  it  would  be  a  solid  embank- 
ment ?'  '  It  would  have  a  tremulous  motion  for  a  time,  but  would 
not  give  way,  like  clay.' " 

Mr.  Alderson  also  cross-examined  him  at  great  length  on  the 
plans  of  the  bridges,  the  tunnels,  the  crossings  of  the  roads  and 
streets,  and  the  details  of  the  survey,  which,  it  soon  appeared,  were 
in  some  respects  seriously  at  fault.  It  seems  that,  after  the  plans 
had  been  deposited,  Stephenson  found  that  a  much  more  favora- 
ble line  might  be  laid  out,  and  he  made  his  estimates  accordingly, 
supposing  that  Parliament  would  not  confine  the  company  to  the 
precise  plan  which  had  been  deposited.  This  was  felt  to  be  a  se- 
rious blot  in  the  Parliamentary  case,  and  one  very  difficult  to  get 
over. 

For  three  entire  days  was  our  engineer  subjected  to  cross-ex- 
amination by  Mr.  Alderson,  Mr.  Cullen,  and  the  other  leading 
counsel  for  the  opposition.  He  held  his  ground  bravely,  and  de- 
fended the  plans  and  estimates  with  remarkable  ability  and  skill, 
but  it  was  clear  they  were  imperfect,  and  the  result  was,  on  the 
whole,  damaging  to  the  bill.  Mr.  (afterward  Sir  William)  Cubitt 
was  called  by  the  promoters,  Mr.  Adam  stating  that  he  proposed 
by  this  witness  to  correct  some  of  the  levels  as  given  by  Stephen- 
sofl.  It  seems  a  singular  course  to  have  been  taken  by  the  pro- 
moters of  the  measure,  for  Mr.  Cubitt's  evidence  went  to  upset  the 
statements  made  by  Stephenson  as  to  the  survey.  This  adverse 
evidence  was,  of  course,  made  the  most  of  by  the  opponents  of  the 
scheme. 

Mr.  Sergeant  Spankie  then  summed  up  for  the  bill  on  the  2d 


272  VITUPERATION  OF  COUNSEL.  [PART  II. 

of  May,  in  a  speech  of  great  length,  and  the  case  of  the  opponents 
was  next  gone  into,  Mr.  Harrison  opening  with  a  long  and  elo- 
quent speech  on  behalf  of  his  clients,  Mrs.  Atherton  and  others. 
He  indulged  in  strong  vituperation  against  the  witnesses  for  the 
bill,  and  especially  dwelt  upon  the  manner  in  which  Mr.  Cubitt, 
for  the  promoters,  had  proved  that  Stephenson's  levels  were  wrong. 

"  They  got.  a  person,"  said  he, "  whose  character  and  skill  I  do 
not  dispute,  though  I  do  not  exactly  know  that  I  should  have  gone 
to  the  inventor  of  the  treadmill  as  the  fittest  man  to  take  the  levels 
of  Knowsley  Moss  and  Chat  Moss,  which  shook  almost  as  much  as 
a  treadmill,  as  you  recollect,  for  he  (Mr.  Cubitt)  said  Chat  Moss 
trembled  so  much  under  his  feet  that  he  could  not  take  his  obser- 
vations accurately In  fact,  Mr.  Cubitt  did  not  go  on  to  Chat 

Moss,  because  he  knew  that  it  was  an  immense  mass  of  pulp,  and 
nothing  else.  It  actually  rises  in  height,  from  the  rain  swelling  it 
like  a  sponge,  and  sinks  again  in  dry  weather ;  and  if  a  boring  in- 
strument is  put  into  it,  it  sinks  immediately  by  its  own  weight. 
The  making  of  an  embankment  out  of  this  pulpy,  wet  moss  is  no 
very  easy  task  Who  but  Mr.  Stephenson  would  have  thought  of 
entering  into  Chat  Moss,  carrying  it  out  almost  like  wet  dung  ?  It 
is  ignorance  almost  inconceivable.  It  is  perfect  madness,  in  a  per- 
son called  upon  to  speak  on  a  scientific  subject,  to  propose  such  a 
plan Every  part  of  the  scheme  shows  that  this  man  has  ap- 
plied himself  to  a  subject  of  which  he  has  no  knowledge,  and  to 
which  he  has  no  science  to  apply." 

Then,  adverting  to  the  proposal  to  work  the  intended  line  by 
means  of  locomotives,  the  learned  gentleman  proceeded : 

"  When  we  set  out  with  the  original  prospectus,  we  were  to  gal- 
lop I  know  not  at  what  rate— I  believe  it  was  at  the  rate  of  twelve 
miles  an  hour.  My  learned  friend,  Mr.  Adam,  contemplated — pos- 
sibly alluding  to  Ireland — that  some  of  the  Irish  members  would 
arrive  in  the  wagons  to  a  division.  My  learned  friend  says  that 
they  would  go  at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles  an  hour  with  the  aid  of 
the  devil  in  the  form  of  a  locomotive  sitting  as  postillion  on  the  fore 
horse,  and  an  honorable  member  sitting  behind  him  to  stir  up  the 
fire,  and  keep  it  at  full  speed.  But  the  speed  at  which  these  loco- 
motive engines  are  to  go  has  slackened :  Mr.  Adam  does  not  go  fast- 
er now  than  five  miles  an  hour.  The  learned  sergeant  (Spankie) 
says  he  should  like  to  have  seven,  but  he  would  be  content  to  go 
six.  I  will  show  he  can  not  go  six ;  and  probably,  for  any  practical 


CHAP.X.]  CHAT  MOSS.— MR.  GILES.  273 

purposes,  I  may  be  able  to  show  that  I  can  keep  up  with  him  by 
the  canal.  ....  Locomotive  engines  are  liable  to  be  operated  upon 
by  the  weather.  You  are  told  they  are  affected  by  rain,  and  an  at- 
tempt has  been  made  to  cover  them ;  but  the  wind  will  affect  them ; 
and  any  gale  of  wind  which  would  affect  the  traffic  on  the  Mersey 
would  render  it  impossible  to  set  off  a  locomotive  engine,  either  by 
poking  of  the  fire,  or  keeping  up  the  pressure  of  the  steam  till  the 
boiler  was  ready  to  burst."  ;  ' 

How  amusing  it  now  is  to  read  these  extraordinary  views  as  to 
the  formation  of  a  railway  over  Chat  Moss,  and  the  impossibility 
of  starting  a  locomotive  engine  in  the  face  of  a  gale  of  wind  ? 

Evidence  was  called  to  show  that  the  house  property  passed  by 
the  proposed  railway  would  be  greatly  deteriorated  —  in  some 
places  almost  destroyed ;  that  the  locomotive  engines  would  be 
terrible  nuisances,  in  consequence  of  the  fire  and  smoke  vomited 
forth  by  them ;  and  that  the  value  of  land  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Manchester  alone  would  be  deteriorated  by  no  less  than  £20,000 ! 
Evidence  was  also  given  at  great  length  showing  the  utter  impos- 
sibility of  forming  a  road  of  any  kind  upon  Chat  Moss.  A  Man- 
chester builder,  who  was  examined,  could  not  imagine  the  feat 
possible,  unless  by  arching  it  across  in  the  marinaaLafjjjjgdaduct 
from  one  side  to  the  other.  It  was  the  old  story  of  "nothing  like 
leather."  But  the  opposition  mainly  relied  upon  the  evidence  of 
the  leading  engineers — not,  like  Stephenson,  self -taught  men,  but 
regular  professionals.  Mr.  Francis  Giles,  C.E.,  was  their  great 
card.  He  had  been  twenty-two  years  an  engineer,  and  could  speak 
with  some  authority.  His  testimony  was  mainly  directed  to  the 
utter  impossibility  of  forming  a  railway  over  Chat  Moss,  "No 
engineer  in  his  senses"  said  he, " would  go  through  Chat  Moss  if 
he  wanted  to  make  a  railroad  from  Liverpool  to  Manchester.  In 
my  judgment,  a  railroad  certainly  can  not  be  safely  made  over 
Chat  Moss  without  going  to  the  bottom  of  the  Moss."  The  fol- 
lowing may  be  taken  as  a  specimen  of  Mr.  Giles's  evidence : 

" '  Tell  us  whether,  in  your  judgment,  a  railroad  can  be  safely 
made  over  Chat  Moss  without  going  to  the  bottom  of  the  bog?' 
'  I  say,  certainly  not? 

" '  Will  it  be  necessary,  therefore,  in  making  a  permanent  railroad, 
to  take  out  the  whole  of  the  moss  to  the  bottom,  along  the  whole 
line  of  road  ?'  '  Undoubtedly.' 

S 


274:  THE  MOST  ABSURD  POSSIBLE  SCHEME.         [PART  II. 

" '  Will  that  make  it  necessary  to  cut  down  the  thirty-three  or 
thirty-four  feet  of  which  you  have  been  speaking  ?'  '  Yes.' 

" '  And  afterward  to  fill  it  up  with  other  soil  ?'  '  To  such  height 
as  the  railway  is  to  be  carried ;  other  soil  mixed  with  a  portion  of 
the  moss.' 

" '  But  suppose  they  were  to  work  upon  this  stuff,  could  they  get 
their  carriages  to  this  place  ?'  'No  carriage  can  stand  on  the  moss 
short  of  the  bottom.' 

" '  What  could  they  do  to  make  it  stand — laying  planks,  or  some- 
thing of  that  sort  ?'  *  Nothing  would  support  it.' 

" '  So  that,  if  you  would  carry  a  railroad  over  this  fluid  stuff — if 
you  could  do  it,  it  would  still  take  a  great  number  of  men  and  a 
great  sum  of  money.  Could  it  be  done,  in  your  opinion,  for  £6000  ?' 
'  I  should  say  £200,000  would  not  get  through  it.' 

" '  My  learned  friend  wishes  to  know  what  it  would  cost  to  lay  it 
with  diamonds  ?' " 

Mr.  H.  K.  Palmer,  C.E.,  gave  evidence  to  prove  that  resistance 
to  a  moving  body  going  under  four  and  a  quarter  miles  an  hour 
was  less  upon  a  canal  than  upon  a  railroad ;  and  that,  when  go- 
ing against  a  strong  wind,  the  progress  of  a  locomotive  was  re- 
tarded "  very  much."  Mr.  George  Leather,  C.E.,  the  engineer  of 
the  Croydon  and  Wandsworth  Railway,  on  which  he  said  the 
wagons  went  at  from  two  and  a  half  to  three  miles  an  hour,  also 
testified  against  the  practicability  of  Stephenson's  plan.  He  con- 
sidered his  estimate  a  "  very  wild"  one.  He  had  no  confidence 
in  locomotive  power.  The  Weardale  Railway,  of  which  he  was 
engineer,  had  given  up  the  use  of  locomotive  engines.  He  sup- 
posed that,  when  used,  they  traveled  at  three  and  a  half  to  four 
miles  an  hour,  because  they  were  considered  to  be  then  more  ef- 
fective than  at  a  higher  speed. 

When  these  distinguished  engineers  had  given  their  evidence, 
Mr.  Alderson  summed  up  in  a  speech  which  extended  over  two 
days.  He  declared  Stephenson's  plan  to  be  "the  most  absurd 
scheme  that  ever  entered  into  the  head  of  man  to  conceive :" 

"  My  learned  friends,"  said  he, "  almost  endeavored  to  stop  my 
examination ;  they  wished  me  to  put  in  the  plan,  but  I  had  rather 
have  the  exhibition  of  Mr.  Stephenson  in  that  box.  I  say  he  never 
had  one — I  believe  he  never  had  one — I  do  not  believe  he  is  capable 
of  making  one.  His  is  a  mind  perpetually  fluctuating  between  op- 
posite difficulties :  he  neither  knows  whether  he  is  to  make  bridges 


CHAP.X.]  MR.ALDERSON  ON  "CHAT  MOSS."  275 

over  roads  or  rivers  of  one  size  or  of  another,  or  to  make  embank- 
ments, or  cuttings,  or  inclined  planes,  or  in  what  way  the  thing  is 
to  be  carried  into  effect.  Whenever  a  difficulty  is  pressed,  as  in 
the  case  of  a  tunnel,  he  gets  out  of  it  at  one  end,  and  when  you  try 
to  catch  him  at  that,  he  gets  out  at  the  other." 

Mr.  Alderson  proceeded  to  declaim  against  the  gross  ignorance 
of  this  so-called  engineer,  who  proposed  to  make  "  impossible 
ditches  by  the  side  of  an  impossible  railway"  over  Chat  Moss; 
and  he  contrasted  with  his  evidence  that  given  "  by  that  most  re- 
spectable gentleman  we  have  called  before  you,  I  mean  Mr. 
Giles,  who  has  executed  a  vast  number  of  works,"  etc.  Then  Mr. 
Giles's  evidence  as  to  the  impossibility  of  making  any  railway 
over  the  Moss  that  would  stand  short  of  the  bottom  was  emphati- 
cally dwelt  upon ;  and  Mr.  Alderson  proceeded  : 

"  Having  now,  sir,  gone  through  Chat  Moss,  and  having  shown 
that  Mr.  Giles  is  right  in  his  principle  when  he  adopts  a  solid  rail- 
way— and  I  care  not  whether  Mr.  Giles  is  right  or  wrong  in  his  es- 
timate, for  whether  it  be  effected  by  means  of  piers  raised  up  all  the 
way  for  four  miles  through  Chat  Moss,  whether  they  are  to  sup- 
port it  on  beams  of  wood  or  by  erecting  masonry,  or  whether  Mr. 
Giles  shall  put  a  solid  bank  of  earth  through  it — in  all  these  schemes 
there  is  not  one  found  like  that  of  Mr.  Stephenson's,  namely,  to  cut 
impossible  drains  on  the  side  of  this  road ;  and  it  is  sufficient  for 
me  to  suggest,  and  to  show,  that  this  scheme  of  Mr.  Stephenson's  is 
impossible  or  impracticable,  and  that  no  other  scheme,  if  they  pro- 
ceed upon  this  line,  can  be  suggested  which  will  not  produce  enor- 
mous expense.  I  think  that  has  been  irrefragably  made  out.  Ev- 
ery one  knows  Chat  Moss — every  one  knows  that  Mr.  Giles  speaks 
correctly  when  he  says  the  iron  sinks  immediately  on  its  being  put 
upon  the  surface.  I  have  heard  of  culverts  which  have  been  put 
upon  the  Moss,  which,  after  having  been  surveyed  the  day  before, 
have  the  next  morning  disappeared;  and  that  a  house  (a  poet's 
house,  who  may  be  supposed  in  the  habit  of  building  castles  even 
in  the  air),  story  after  story,  as  fast  as  one  is  added,  the  lower  one 
sinks !  There  is  nothing,  it  appears,  except  long  sedgy  grass,  and 
a  little  soil,  to  prevent  its  sinking  into  the  shades  of  eternal  night. 
I  have  now  done,  sir,  with  Chat  Moss,  and  there  I  leave  this  rail- 
road." 

Mr.  Alderson,  of  course,  called  upon  the  committee  to  reject 
the  bill ;  and  he  protested  "  against  the  despotism  of  the  Ex- 


276  FARTHER  VITUPERATION.  [PART  II. 

change  at  Liverpool  striding  across  the  land  of  this  country.  I 
do  protest,"  he  concluded,  "  against  a  measure  like  this,  supported 
as  it  is  by  such  evidence,  and  founded  upon  such  calculations." 

The  case  of  the  other  numerous  petitioners  against  the  bill  still 
remained  to  be  gone  into.  Witnesses  were  called  to  prove  the 
residential  injury  which  would  be  caused  by  the  "  intolerable 
nuisance"  of  the  smoke  and  fire  from  the  locomotives,  and  others 
to  prove  that  the  price  of  coals  and  iron  would  "infallibly"  be 
greatly  raised  throughout  the  country.  This  was  part  of  the  case 
of  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater's  trustees,  whose  witnesses  "  proved" 
many  very  extraordinary  things.  The  Leeds  and  Liverpool  Canal 
Company  were  so  fortunate  as  to  pick  up  a  witness  from  Hetton 
who  was  ready  to  furnish  some  damaging  evidence  as  to  the  use 
of  Stephenson's  locomotives  on  that  railway.  This  was  Mr. 
Thomas  Wood,  one  of  the  Hetton  Company's  clerks,  whose  evi- 
dence was  to  the  effect  that  the  locomotives,  having  been  found 
ineffective,  were  about  to  be  discontinued  in  favor  of  fixed  en- 
gines. The  evidence  of  this  witness,  incompetent  though  he  was 
to  give  an  opinion  on  the  subject,  and  exaggerated  as  his  state- 
ments were  afterward  proved  to  be,  was  made  the  most  of  by 
Mr.  Harrison  when  summing  up  the  case  of  the  canal  companies. 

"  At  length,"  he  said,  "  we  have  come  to  this — having  first  set 
out  at  twelve  miles  an  hour,  the  speed  of  these  locomotives  is  re- 
duced to  six,  and  now  comes  down  to  two  or  two  and  a  half.  They 
must  be  content  to  be  pulled  along  by  horses  and  donkeys ;  and  all 
those  fine  promises  of  galloping  along  at  the  rate  of  twelve  miles  an 
hour  are  melted  down  to  a  total  failure ;  the  foundation  on  which 
their  case  stood  is  cut  from  under  them  completely ;  for  the  Act  of 
Parliament,  the  committee  will  recollect,  prohibits  any  person  using 
any  animal  power,  of  any  sort,  kind,  or  description,  except  the  pro- 
jectors of  the  railway  themselves ;  therefore  I  say  that  the  whole 
foundation  on  which  this  project  exists  is  gone." 

After  farther  personal  abuse  of  Mr.  Stephenson,  whose  evi- 
dence he  spoke  of  as  "  trash  and  confusion,"  Mr.  Harrison  closed 
the  case  of  the  canal  companies  on  the  30th  of  May.  Mr.  Adam 
replied  for  the  promoters,  recapitulating  the  principal  points  of 
their  case,  and  vindicating  Mr.  Stephenson  and  the  evidence 
which  he  had  given  before  the  committee. 

The  committee  then  divided  on  the  preamble,  which  was  car- 


CHAP.X.]  THE  BILL  DEFEATED.  277 

ried  by  a  majority  of  only  otie — thirty-seven  voting  for  it,  and 
thirty-six  against  it.  The  clauses  were  next  considered,  and  on  a 
division,  the  first  clause,  empowering  the  company  to  make  the 
railway,  was  lost  by  a  majority  of  nineteen  to  thirteen.  In  like 
manner,  the  next  clause,  empowering  the  company  to  take  land, 
was  lost ;  on  which  Mr.  Adam,  on  the  part  of  the  promoters, 
withdrew  the  bill. 

Thus  ended  this  memorable  contest,  which  had  extended  over 
two  months — carried  on  throughout  with  great  pertinacity  and 
skill,  especially  on  the  part  of  the  opposition,  who  left  no  stone 
unturned  to  defeat  the  measure.  The  want  of  a  new  line  of  com- 
munication between  Liverpool  and  Manchester  had  been  clearly 
proved;  but  the  engineering  evidence  in  support  of  the  proposed 
railway  having  been  thrown  almost  entirely  upon  George  Ste- 
phenson,  who  fought  this,  the  most  important  part  of  the  battle, 
single-handed,  was  not  brought  out  so  clearly  as  it  would  have 
been  had  he  secured  more  efficient  engineering  assistance,  which 
he  was  not  able  to  do,  as  all  the  engineers  of  eminence  of  that 
day  were  against  the  locomotive  railway.  The  obstacles  thrown 
in  the  way  of  the  survey  by  the  land-owners  and  canal  companies, 
by  which  the  plans  were  rendered  exceedingly  imperfect,  also 
tended  in  a  great  measure  to  defeat  the  bill. 

Mr.  Gooch  says  the  rejection  of  the  scheme  was  probably  the 
most  severe  trial  George  Stephenson  underwent  in  the  whole 
course  of  his  life.  The  circumstances  connected  with  the  defeat 
of  the  bill,  the  errors  in  the  levels,  his  severe  cross-examination, 
followed  by  the  fact  of  his  being  superseded  by  another  engineer, 
all  told  fearfully  upon  him,  and  for  some  time  he  was  as  terribly 
weighed  down  as  if  a  personal  calamity  of  the  most  serious  kind 
had  befallen  him.  It  is  also  right  to  add  that  he  was  badly 
served  by  his  surveyors,  who  were  unpracticed  and  incompetent. 
On  the  27th  of  September,  1824,  we  find  him  writing  to  Mr.  San- 
dars :  "  I  am  quite  shocked  with  Auty's  conduct ;  we  must  throw 
liim  aside  as  soon  as  possible.  Indeed,  I  have  begun  to  fear  that 
he  has  been  f  ee'd  by  some  of  the  canal  proprietors  to  make  a  botch 
of  the  job.  I  have  a  letter  from  Steele,*  whose  views  of  Auty's 
conduct  quite  agree  with  yours." 

*  Hugh  Steele  and  Elijah  Galloway  afterward  proceeded  with  the  survey  at  one 
part  of  the  line,  and  Messrs.  Oliver  and  Bkckett  at  another.  The  former  couple 


278  THE  PROJECT  REVIVED.  [PART  II. 

The  result  of  this  first  application  to  Parliament  was  so  far 
discouraging.  Stephenson  had  been  so  terribly  abused  by  the 
leading  counsel  for  the  opposition  in  the  course  of  the  proceed- 
ings before  the  committee — stigmatized  by  them  as  an  ignoramus, 
a  fool,  and  a  maniac — that  even  his  friends  seem  for  a  time  to 
have  lost  faith  in  him  and  in  the  locomotive  system,  whose  effi- 
.  ciency  he  continued  to  uphold.  Things  never  looked  blacker  for 
the  success  of  the  railway  system  than  at  the  close  of  this  great 
Parliamentary  struggle.  And  yet  it  was  dn  the  very  eve  of  its 
triumph. 

The  Committee  of  Directors  appointed  to  watch  the  measure 
in  Parliament  were  so  determined  to  press  on  the  project  of  a 
railway,  even  though  it  should  have  to  be  worked  merely  by 
horse-power,  that  the  bill  had  scarcely  been  defeated  ere  they 
met  in  London  to  consider  their  next  step.  They  called  their 
Parliamentary  friends  together  to  consult  as  to  their  future  pro- 
ceedings. Among  those  who  attended  the  meeting  of  gentlemen 
with  this  object  in  the  Royal  Hotel,  St.  James's  Street,  on  the  4th 
of  June,  were  Mr.  Huskisson,  Mr.  Spring  Rice,  and  General  Gas- 
coyne.  Mr.  Huskisson  urged  the  promoters  to  renew  their  ap- 
plication to  Parliament.  They  had  secured  the  first  step  by  the 
passing  of  their  preamble ;  the  measure  was  of  great  public  im- 
portance ;  and,  whatever  temporary  opposition  it  might  meet 
with,  he  conceived  that  Parliament  must  ultimately  give  its  sanc- 
tion to  the  undertaking.  Similar  views  were  expressed  by  other 
speakers ;  and  the  deputation  went  back  to  Liverpool  determined 
to  renew  their  application  to  Parliament  in  the  ensuing  season. 

It  was  not  considered  desirable  to  employ  George  Stephenson 
in  making  the  new  survey.  He  had  not  as  yet  established  his 
reputation  beyond  the  boundaries  of  his  own  district,  and  the 
promoters  of  the  bill  had  doubtless  felt  the  disadvantages  of  this 
in  the  course  of  their  Parliamentary  struggle.  They  therefore 
resolved  now  to  employ  engineers  of  the  highest  established  repu- 
tation, as  well  as  the  best  surveyors  that  could  be  obtained.  In 

seem  tojhave  made  some  grievous  blunder  in  the  levels  on  Chat  Moss,  and  the  cir- 
cumstance weighed  so  heavily  on  Steele's  mind  that,  shortly  after  hearing  of  the  re- 
jection of  the  bill,  he  committed  suicide  in  Stephenson's  office  at  Newcastle.  Mr. 
Gooch  informs  us  that  this  unhappy  affair  served  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  Ste- 
phenson's other  pupils  the  necessity  of  insuring  greater  accuracy  and  attention  in  fu- 
ture, and  that  the  lesson,  though  sad,  was  not  lost  upon  them. 


CHAP.X.]  OPPOSITION  AVERTED.  279 

accordance  with  these  views,  they  engaged  Messrs.  George  and 
John  Rennie  to  be  the  engineers  of  the  railway ;  and  Mr.  Charles 
Vignolles,  on  their  behalf,  was .  appointed  to  prepare  the  plans 
and  sections.  The  line  which  was  eventually  adopted  differed 
somewhat  from  that  surveyed  by  Stephenson,  entirely  avoiding 
Lord  Sefton's  property,  and  passing  through  only  a  few  detached 
fields  of  Lord  Derby's  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the  Knows- 
ley  domain.  The  principal  parks  and  game  preserves  of  the  dis- 
trict were  also  carefully  avoided.  The  promoters  thus  hoped  to 
get  rid  of  the  opposition  of  the  most  influential  of  the  resident 
land-owners.  The  crossing  of  certain  of  the  streets  of  Liverpool 
was  also  avoided,  and  the'  entrance  contrived  by  means  of  a  tun- 
nel and  an  inclined  plane.  The  new  line  stopped  short  of  the 
River  Irwell  at  the  Manchester  end,  and  thus,  in  some  measure, 
removed  the  objections  grounded  on  an  anticipated  interruption 
to  the  canal  or  river  traffic.  And,  with  reference  to  the  use  of 
the  locomotive  engine,  the  promoters,  remembering  with  what 
effect  the  objections  to  it  had  been  urged  by  the  opponents  of  the 
measure,  intimated,  in  their  second  prospectus,  that, "  as  a  guaran- 
tee of  their  good  faith  toward  the  public,  they  will  not  require 
any  clause  empowering  them  to  use  it;  or  they  will  submit  to 
such  restrictions  in  the  employment  of  it  as  Parliament  may  im- 
pose, for  the  satisfaction  and  ample  protection  both  of  proprie- 
tors on  the  line  of  road  and  of  the  public  at  large." 

It  was  found  that  the  capital  required  to  form  the  line  of  rail- 
way, as  laid  out  by  the  Messrs.  Rennie,  was  considerably  beyond 
the  amount  of  Stephenson's  estimate,  and  it  became  a  question 
with  the  committee  in  what  way  the  new  capital  should  be  raised. 
A  proposal  was  made  to  the  Marquis  of  Stafford,  who  was  prin- 
cipally interested  in  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater's  Canal,  to  become 
a  shareholder  in  the  undertaking.  A  similar  proposal  had  at  an 
earlier  period  been  made  to  Mr.  Bradshaw,  the  trustee  for  the 
property ;  but  his  answer  was  "  all  or  none,"  and  the  negotiation 
was  broken  off.  The  Marquis  of  Stafford,  however,  now  met  the 
projectors  of  the  railway  in  a  more  conciliatory  spirit,  and  it  was 
ultimately  agreed  that  he  should  become  a  subscriber  to  the  ex- 
tent of  a  thousand  shares.. 

The  survey  of  the  new  line  having  been  completed,  the  plans 
were  deposited,  the  standing  orders  duly  complied  with,  and  the 


280  THE  BILL  PASSED. 


bill  went  before  Parliament.  The  same  counsel  appeared  for  the 
promoters,  but  the  examination  of  witnesses  was  not  nearly  so 
protracted  as  on  the  former  occasion.  %  Mr.  Erie  and  Mr.  Harrison 
led  the  case  of  the  opposition.  The  bill  went  into  committee  on 
the  6th  of  March,  and  on  the  16th  the  preamble  was  declared 
proved  by  a  majority  of  forty-three  to  eighteen.  On  the  third 
reading  in  the  House  of  Commons,  an  animated,  and  what  now 
appears  a  very  amusing  discussion,  took  place.  The  Hon.  Edward 
Stanley  (since  Earl  of  Derby,  and  prime  minister)  moved  that  the 
bill  be  read  that  day  six  months.  In  the  course  of  his  speech  he 
undertook  to  prove  that  the  railway  trains  would  take  ten  hours 
on  the  journey,  and  that  they  could  only  be  worked  by  horses  ; 
and  he  called  upon  the  House  to  stop  the  bill,  "  and  prevent  this 
mad  and  extravagant  speculation  from  being  carried  into  effect." 
Sir  Isaac  Coffin  seconded  the  motion,  and  in  doing  so  denounced 
the  project  as  a  most  flagrant  imposition.  He  would  not  consent 
to  see  widows'  premises  and  their  strawberry-beds  invaded  ;  and 
"  what,  he  would  like  to  know,  was  to  be  done  with  all  those  who 
had  advanced  money  in  making  and  repairing  turnpike  roads? 
What  with"  those  who  may  -still  wish  to  travel  in  their  own  or 
hired  carriages,  after  the  fashion  of  their  forefathers?  What 
was  to  become  of  coach-makers  and  harness-makers,  coach-mas- 
ters and  coachmen,  innkeepers,  horse-breeders,  and  horse-dealers  ? 
Was  the  House  aware  of  the  smoke  and  the  noise,  the  hiss  and 
the  whirl,  which  locomotive  engines,  passing  at  the  rate  of  ten  or 
twelve  miles  an  hour,  would  occasion  ?  Neither  the  cattle  plow- 
ing in  the  fields  or  grazing  in  the  meadows  could  behold  them 
without  dismay.  Iron  would  be  raised  in  price  100  per  cent.,  or 
more  probably  exhausted  altogether  !  It  would  be  the  greatest 
nuisance,  the  most  complete  disturbance  of  quiet  and  comfort  in 
all  parts  of  the  kingdom  that  the  ingenuity  of  man  could  invent  !" 
Mr.  Huskisson  and  other  speakers,  though  unable  to  reply  to 
such  arguments  as  these,  strongly  supported  the  bill,  and  it  was 
carried  on  the  third  reading  by  a  majority  of  eighty-eight  to  forty- 
one.  The  bill  passed  the  House  of  Lords  almost  unanimously,  its 
only  opponents  being  the  Earl  of  Derby  and  his  relative  the  Earl 
of  Wilton.  The  cost  of  obtaining  the  act  amounted  to  the  enor- 
mous sum  of  £27,000. 


CHAP.  XL]   STEPHENSON  AGAIN  APPOINTED  ENGINEER.       281 


CHAPTER  XL 

CHAT  MOSS CONSTRUCTION   OF   THE   RAILWAY. 

THE  appointment  of  principal  engineer  of  the  railway  was 
taken  into  consideration  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  directors  held 
at  Liverpool  subsequent  to  the  passing  of  the  act  of  incorpora- 
tion. The  magnitude  of  the  proposed  works,  and  the  vast  con- 
sequences involved  in  the  experiment,  were  deeply  impressed  on 
their  minds,  and  they  resolved  to  secure  the  services  of  a  resident 
engineer  of  proved  experience  and  ability.  Their  attention  was 
naturally  directed  to  George  Stephenson ;  at  the  same  time,  they 
desired  to  have  the  benefit  of  the  Messrs.  Rennie's  professional 
assistance  in  superintending  the  works.  Mr.  George  Rennie  had 
an  interview  with  the  board  on  the  subject,  at  which  he  proposed 
to  undertake  the  chief  superintendence,  making  six  visits  in  each 
year,  and  stipulating  that  he  should  have  the  appointment  of  the 
resident  engineer.  But  the  responsibility  attaching  to  the  direc- 
tion in  the  matter  of  the  efficient  carrying  on  of  the  works  would 
not  admit  of  their  being  influenced  by  ordinary  punctilios  on  the 
occasion,  and  they  accordingly  declined  Mr.  Rennie's  proposal, 
and  proceeded  to  appoint  George  Stephenson  principal  engineer 
at  a  salary  of  £1000  per  annum. 

He  at  once  removed  his  residence  to  Liverpool,  and  made  ar- 
rangements to  commence  the  works.  He  began  with  the  "im- 
possible thing" — to  do  that  which  some  of  the  principal  engi- 
neers of  the  day  had  declared  that  "  no  man  in  his  senses  would 
undertake  to  do" — namely,  to  make  the  road  over  Chat  Moss ! 
It  was,  indeed,  a  most  formidable  undertaking,  and  the  project 
of  carrying  a  railway  along,  under,  or  over  such  a  material  as 
that  of  which  it  consisted  would  certainly  never  have  occurred 
to  an  ordinary  mind.  Michael  Drayton  supposed  the  Moss  to 
have  had  its  origin  at  the  Deluge.  Nothing  more  impassable 
could  have  been  imagined  than  that  dreary  waste ;  and  Mr.  Giles 
only  spoke  the  popular  feeling  of  the  day  when  he  declared  that 


282  CHAT  MOSS.  [PAET  U. 

no  carriage  could  stand  on  it "  short  of  the  bottom."  In  this  bog, 
singular  to  say,  Mr.  Roscoe,  the  accomplished  historian  of  the 
Medicis,  buried  his  fortune  in  the  hopeless  attempt  to  cultivate 
a  portion  of  it  which  he  had  bought. 

Chat  Moss  is  an  immense  peat -bog  of  about  twelve  square 
miles  in  extent.  Unlike  the  bogs  or  swamps  of  Cambridge  and 
Lincolnshire,  which  consist  principally  of  soft  mud  or  silt,  this 
bog  is  a  vast  mass  of  spongy  vegetable  pulp,  the  result  of  the 
growth  and  decay  of  ages.  Spagui,  or  bog-mosses,  cover  the 
entire  area ;  one  year's  growth  rising  over  another,  the  older 
growths  not  entirely  decaying,  but  remaining  partially  preserved 
by  the  antiseptic  properties  peculiar  to  peat.  JSence  the  remark- 
able fact  that,  though  a  semifluid  mass,  the  surface  of  Chat  Moss 
rises  above  the  level  of  the  surrounding  country.  Like  a  turtle's 
back,  it  declines  from  the  summit  in  every  direction,  having 
from  thirty  to  forty  feet  gradual  slope  to  the  solid  land  on  all 
sides.  From  the  remains  of  trees,  chiefly  alder  and  birch,  which 
have  been  dug  out  of  it,  and  which  must  have  previously  flour- 
ished on  the  surface  of  the  soil  now  deeply  submerged,  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  sand  and  clay  base  on  which  the  bog  rests  is  sau- 
cer-shaped, and  so  retains  the  entire  mass  in  position.  In  rainy 
weather,  such  is  its  capacity  for  water  that  it  sensibly  swells,  and 
rises  in  those  parts  where  the  moss  is  the  deepest.  This  occurs 
through  the  capillary  attraction  of  the  fibres  of  the  submerged 
moss,  which  is  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  in  depth,  while  the 
growing  plants  effectually  check  evaporation  from  the  surface. 
This  peculiar  character  of  the  Moss  has  presented  an  insuperable 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  draining  on  any  extensive  system — such 
as  by  sinking  shafts  in  its  substance,  and  pumping  up  the  water 
by  steam-power,  as  has  been  proposed  by  some  engineers.  For, 
supposing  a  shaft  of  thirty  feet  deep  to  be  sunk,  it  has  been  cal- 
culated that  this  would  only  be  effectual  for  draining  a  circle  of 
about  one  hundred  yards,  the  water  running  down  an  incline  of 
about  5  to  1 ;  indeed,  it  was  found,  in  the  course  of  draining  the 
bog,  that  a  ditch  thrqe  feet  deep  only  served  to  drain  a  space  of 
less  than  five  yards  on  either  side,  and  two  ditches  of  this  depth, 
ten  feet  apart,  left  a  portion  of  the  Moss  between  them  scarcely 
affected  by  the  drains. 

The  three  resident  engineers  selected  by  Mr.  Stephenson  to  siv 


CHAP.  XI.]     THE  RESIDENT  ENGINEERS.— A  MUD  BATH.          283 

perintend  the  construction  of  the  line  were  Mr.  Joseph  Locke, 
Mr.  Allcard,  and  Mr.  John  Dixon.  The  last  was  appointed  to 
that  portion  which  included  the  proposed  road  across  the  Moss, 
the  other  two  being  any  thing  but  desirous  of  exchanging  posts 
with  him.  On  Mr.  Dixon's  arrival,  about  the  month  of  July, 
1826,  Mr.  Locke  proceeded  to  show  him  over  the  length  he  was 
to  take  charge  of,  and  to  instal  him  in  office.  When  they  reached 
Chat  Moss,  Mr.  Dixon  found  that  the  line  had  already  been  staked 
out  and  the  levels  taken  in  detail  by  the  aid  of  planks  laid  upon 
the  bog.  The  cutting  of  the  drains  along  each  side  of  the  pro- 
posed road  had  also  been  commenced,  but  the  soft  pulpy  stuff 
had  up  to  this  time  flowed  into  the  drains  and  filled  them  up  as 
fast  as  they  were  cut.  Proceeding  across  the  Moss  on  his  first 
day's  inspection,  the  new  resident,  when  about  half  way  over, 
slipped  off  the  plank  on  which  he  walked,  and  sank  to  his  knees 
in  the  bog.  Struggling  only  sent  him  the  deeper,  and  he  might 
have  disappeared  altogether  but  for  the  workmen,  who  hastened 
to  his  assistance  upon  planks,  and  rescued  him  from  his  perilous 
position.  Much  disheartened,  he  desired  to  return,  and  even  for 
the  moment  thought  of  giving  up  the  job;  but  Mr. Locke  assured 
him  that  the  worst  part  was  now  past ;  so  the  new  resident  pluck- 
ed up  heart  again,  and  both  floundered  on  until  they  reached 
the  farther  edge  of  the  Moss,  wet  and  plastered  over  with  bog 
sludge.  Mr.  Dixon's  assistants  endeavored  to  comfort  him  by  the 
assurance  that  he  might  in  future  avoid  similar  perils  by  walking 
upon  "  pattens,"  or  boards  fastened  to  the  soles  of  his  feet,  as  they 
had  done  when  taking  the  levels,  and  as  the  workmen  did  when 
engaged  in  making  drains  in  the  softest  parts  of  the  Moss.  Still 
the  resident  engineer  could  not  help  being  puzzled  by  the  prob- 
lem of  how  to  construct  a  road  for  a  heavy  locomotive,  with  a 
train  of  passengers  or  goods,  upon  a  bog  which  he  had  found  to 
be  incapable  of  supporting  his  own  individual  weight ! 

Stephenson's  idea  was  that  such  a  road  might  be  made  to  float 
upon  the  bog  simply  by  means  of  a  sufficient  extension  of  the 
bearing  surface.  As  a  ship,  or  a  raft  capable  of  sustaining  heavy 
loads,  floated  in  water,  so,  in  his  opinion,  might  a  light  road  be 
floated  upon  a  bog  which  was  of  considerably  greater  consistency 
than  water.  Long  before  the  railway  was  thought  of,  Mr.  Roscoe 
had  adopted  the  remarkable  expedient  of  fitting  his  plow-horses 


284  A  FLOATING  ROAD.  [PART  II. 

with  flat  wooden  soles  or  pattens,  to  enable  them  to  walk  upon 
the  Moss  land  which  he  had  brought  into  cultivation.  These 
pattens  were  fitted  on  by  means  of  a  screw  apparatus,  which  met 
in  front  of  the  foot  and  was  easily  fastened.  The  mode  by  which 
these  pattens  served  to  sustain  the  horse  is  capable  of  easy  ex- 
planation, and  it  will  be  observed  that  the  rationale  alike  ex- 
plains the  floating  of  a  railway.  The  foot  of  an  ordinary  farm- 
horse  presents  a  base  of  about  five  inches  diameter,  but  if  this 
base  be  enlarged  to  seven  inches — the  circles  being  to  each  other 
as  the  squares  of  the  diameters — it  will  be  found  that,  by  this 
slight  enlargement  of  the  base,  a  circle  of  nearly  double  the  area 
has  been  secured,  and  consequently  the  pressure  of  the  foot 
upon  every  unit  of  ground  on  which  the  horse  stands  has  been 
reduced  one  half.  In  fact,  this  contrivance  has  an  effect  tanta- 
mount to  setting  the  horse  upon  eight  feet  instead  of  four. 

Apply  the  same  reasoning  to  the  ponderous  locomotive,  and  it 
will  be  found  that  even  such  a  machine  may  be  made  to  stand 
upon  a  bog  by  means  of  a  similar  extension  of  the  bearing  sur- 
face. Suppose  the  engine  to  be  twenty  feet  long  and  five  feet 
wide,  thus  covering  a  surface  of  a  hundred  square  feet,  and,  pro- 
vided the  bearing  has  been  extended  by  means  of  cross  sleepers 
supported  upon  a  matting  of  heath  and  branches  of  trees  covered 
with  a  few  inches  of  gravel,  the  pressure  of  an  engine  of  twenty 
tons  will  be  only  equal  to  about  three  pounds  per  inch  over  the 
whole  surf  ace  on  which  it  stands.  Such  was  George  Stephenson's 
idea  in  contriving  his  floating  road — something  like  an  elongated 
raft — across  the  Moss ;  and  we  shall  see  that  he  steadily  kept  it 
in  view  in  carrying  the  work  into  execution. 

The  first  thing  done  was  to  form  a  footpath  of  ling  or  heather 
along  the  proposed  road,  on  which  a  man  might  walk  without  risk 
of  sinking.  A  single  line  of  temporary  railway  was  then  laid 
down,  formed  of  ordinary  cross-bars  about  three  feet  long  and  an 
inch  square,  with  holes  punched  through  them  at  the  end  and 
nailed  down  to  temporary  sleepers.  Along  this  way  ran  the  wag- 
ons in  which  were  conveyed  the  materials  requisite  to  form  the 
permanent  road.  These  wagons  carried  about  a  ton  each,  and 
they  were  propelled  by  boys  running  behind  them  along  the  nar- 
row bar  of  iron.  The  boys  became  so  expert  that  they  would  run 
the  four  miles  across  at  the  rate  of  seven  or  eight  miles  an  hour 


CHAP. XL]  FORMATION  OF  THE  ROAD.  285 

without  missing  a  step ;  if  they  had  done  so,  they  would  have  sunk 
in  many  places  up  to  their  middle.*  The  slight  extension  of  the 
bearing  surface  was  sufficient  to  enable  the  bog  to  bear  this  tem- 
porary line,  and  the  circumstance  was  a  source  of  increased  con- 
fidence and  hope  to  our  engineer  in  proceeding  with  the  forma- 
tion of  the  permanent  road  alongside. 

The  digging  of  drains  had  been  proceeding  for  some  time  along 
each  side  of  the  intended  railway,  but  they  filled  up  almost  as 
soon  as  dug,  the  sides  flowing  in  and  the  bottom  rising  up,  and  it 
was  only  in  some  of  the  drier  parts  of  the  bog  that  a  depth  of 
three  or  four  feet  could  be  reached.  The  surface-ground  between 
the  drains,  containing  the  intertwined  roots  of  heather  and  long 
grass,  was  left  untouched,  and  upon  this  were  spread  branches  of 
trees  and  hedge-cuttings ;  in  the  softest  places  rude  gates  or  hur- 
dles, some  eight  or  nine  feet  long  by  four  feet  wide,  interwoven 
with  heather,  were  laid  in  double  thicknesses,  their  ends  overlap- 
ping each  other ;  and  upon  this  floating  bed  was  spread  a  thin 
layer  of  gravel,  on  which  the  sleepers,  chairs,  and  rails  were  laid 
in  the  usual  manner.  Such  was  the  mode  in  which  the  road  was 
formed  upon  the  Moss. 

It  was  found,  however,  after  the  permanent  road  had  been  thus 
laid,  that  there  was  a  tendency  to  sinking  at  those  parts  where  the 
bog  was  the  softest.  In  ordinary  cases,  where  a  bank  subsides, 
the  sleepers  are  packed  up  with  ballast  or  gravel,  but  in  this  case 
the  ballast  was  dug  away  and  removed  in  order  to  lighten  the 
road,  and  the  sleepers  were  packed  instead  with  cakes  of  dry  turf 
or  bundles  of  heath.  By  these  expedients  the  subsided  parts  were 
again  floated  up  to  the  level,  and  an  approach  was  made  toward 
a  satisfactory  road,  But  the  most  formidable  difficulties  were 
encountered  at  the  centre  and  toward  the  edges  of  the  Moss,  and 
it  required  no  small  degree  of  ingenuity  and  perseverance  on  the 
part  of  the  engineer  successfully  to  overcome  them. 

The  Moss,  as  has  been  already  observed,  was  highest  in  the 

*  When  the  Liverpool  directors  went  to  inspect  the  works  in  progress  on  the  Moss, 
they  were  run  along  the  temporary  rails  in  the  little  three-feet  gauge  wagons  used  for 
forming  the  road.  They  were  being  thus  impelled  one  day  at  considerable  speed 
when  the  wagon  suddenly  ran  off  the  road,  and  Mr.  Moss,  one  of  the  directors,  was 
thrown  out  in  a  soft  place,  from  which,  however,  he  was  speedily  extricated,  not 
without  leaving  a  deep  mark.  George  used  afterward  laughingly  to  refer  to  the  cir- 
cumstance as  "  the  meeting  of  the  Mosses." 


286  THE  TAR-BARREL  DRAINS.  [PART  II. 

centre,  and  it  there  presented  a  sort  of  hunchback  with  a  rising 
and  falling  gradient.  At  that  point  it  was  found  necessary  to 
cut  deeper  drains  in  order  to  consolidate  the  ground  between 
them  on  which  the  road  was  to  be  formed.  But,  as  at  other 
parts  of  the  Moss,  the  deeper  the  cutting  the  more  rapid  was  the 
flow  of  fluid  bog  into  the  drain,  the  bottom  rising  up  almost  as 
fast  as  it  was  removed.  To  meet  this  emergency,  a  quantity  of 
empty  tar-barrels  was  brought  from  Liverpool,  and,  as  soon  as  a 
few  yards  of  drain  were  dug,  the  barrels  were  laid  down  end  to 
end,  firmly  fixed  to  each  other  by  strong  slabs  laid  over  the  joints, 
and  nailed;  they  were  then  covered  over  with  clay,  and  thus 
formed  an  underground  sewer  of  wood  instead  of  bricks.  This 
expedient  was  found  to  answer  the  purpose  intended,  and  the 
road  across  the  centre  of  the  Moss  having  thus  been  prepared,  it 
was  then  laid  with  the  permanent  materials. 

The  greatest  difficulty  was,  however,  experienced  in  forming 
an  embankment  on  the  edge  of  the  bog  at  the  Manchester  end. 
Moss,  as  dry  as  it  could  be  cut,  was  brought  up  in  small  wagons 
by  men  and  boys,  and  .emptied  so  as  to  form  an  embankment ; 
but  the  bank  had  scarcely  been  raised  three  or  four  feet  in  height 
when  the  stuff  broke  through  the  heathery  surface  of  the  bog 
and  sunk  overhead.  More  moss  was  brought  up  and  emptied  in 
with  no  better  result,  and  for  many  weeks  the  filling  was  con- 
tinued without  any  visible  embankment  having  been  made.  It 
was  the  duty  of  the  resident  engineer  to  proceed  to  Liverpool  ev- 
ery fortnight  to  obtain  the  wages  for  the  workmen  employed  un- 
der him,  and  on  these  occasions  he  was  required  to  color  up,  on 
a  section  drawn  to  a  working  scale  suspended  against  the  wall  of 
the  directors'  room,  the  amount  of  excavation,  embankment,  etc., 
executed  from  time  to  time.  But  on  many  of  these  occasions 
Mr.  Dixon  had  no  progress  whatever  to  show  for  the  money  ex- 
pended on  the  Chat  Moss  embankment.  Sometimes,  indeed,  the 
visible  work  done  was  less  than  it  had  appeared  a  fortnight  or  a 
month  before ! 

The  directors  now  became  seriously  alarmed,  and  feared  that 
the  evil  prognostications  of  the  eminent  engineers  were  about  to 
be  fulfilled.  The  resident  himself  was  greatly  disheartened,  and 
he  was  even  called  upon  to  supply  the  directors  with  an  estimate 
of  the  cost  of  filling  up  the  Moss  with  solid  stuff  from  the  bot- 


CHAP.  XI.]  ALARM  OF  THE  DIRECTORS.  287 

torn,  as  also  the  cost  of  piling  the  roadway,,  and,  in  effect,  con- 
structing a  four-mile  viaduct  of  timber  across  the  Moss,  from 
twenty  to  thirty  feet  high.  But  the  expense  appalled  the  direct- 
ors, and  the  question  then  arose  whether  the  work  was  to  be  pro- 
ceeded with  or  abandoned  ! 

Stephenson  himself  afterward  described  the  alarming  position 
of  affairs  at  a  public  dinner  given  at  Birmingham  on  the  23d  of 
December,  1837,  on  the  occasion  of  a  piece  of  plate  being  pre- 
sented to  his  son  after  the  completion  of  the  London  and  Bir- 
mingham Railway.  He  related  the  anecdote,  he  said,  for  the 
purpose  of  impressing  upon  the  minds  of  those  who  heard  him 
the  necessity  of  perseverance. 

"  After  workuig  for  weeks  and  weeks,"  said  he,  "  in  filling  in  ma- 
terials to  form  the  road,  there  did  not  yet  appear  to  be  the  least 
sign  of  our  being  able  to  raise  the  solid  embankment  one  single 
jnch ;  in  short,  we  went  on  filling  in  without  the  slightest  apparent 
effect.  Even  my  assistants  began  to  feel  uneasy,  and  to  doubt  of 
the  success  of  the  scheme.  The  directors,  too,  spoke  of  it  as  a  hope- 
less task ;  and  at  length  they  became  seriously  alarmed,  so  much 
so,  indeed,  that  a  board  meeting  was  held  on  Chat  Moss  to  decide 
whether  I  should  proceed  any  farther.  They  had  previously  taken 
the  opinion  of  other  engineers,  who  reported  unfavorably.  There 
was  no  help  for  it,  however,  but  to  go  on.  An  immense  outlay  had 
been  incurred,  and  great  loss  would  have  been  occasioned  had  the 
scheme  been  then  abandoned,  and  the  line  taken  by  another  route. 
So  the  directors  were  compelled  to  allow  me  to  go  on  with  my  plans, 
of  the  ultimate  success  of  which  I  myself  never  for  one  moment 
doubted." 

During  the  progress  of  this  part  of  the  works,  the  Worsley  and 
Trafford  men,  who  lived  near  the  Moss,  and  plumed  themselves 
upon  their  practical  knowledge  of  bog-work,  declared  the  comple- 
tion of  the  road  to  be  utterly  impracticable.  "  If  you  knew  as 
much  about  Chat  Moss  as  we  do,"  they  said,  "  you  would  never 
have  entered  on  so  rash  an  undertaking ;  and  depend  upon  it,  all 
you  have  done  and  are  doing  will  prove  abortive.  You  must 
give  up  altogether  the  idea  of  a  floating  railway,  and  either  fill 
the  Moss  up  with  hard  material  from  the  bottom,  or  else  deviate 
the  line  so  as  to  avoid  it  altogether."  Such  were  the  conclusions 
of  science  and  experience. 


288  THE  ROAD  MADE  ON  CHAT  MOSS.  [PABT  H. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  alarms  and  prophecies  of  f  ailure,  Ste- 
phenson  never  lost  heart,  but  held  to  his  purpose.  His  motto  was 
"  Persevere !"  "  You  must  go  on  filling  in,"  he  said ;  "  there  is 
no  other  help  for  it.  The  stuff  emptied  in  is  doing  its  work  out 
of  sight,  and  if  you  will  but  have  patience,  it  will  soon  begin  to 
show."  And  so  the  filling  in  went  on ;  several  hundreds  of  men 
and  boys  were  employed  to  skin  the  Moss  all  round  for  many 
thousand  yards,  by  means  of  sharp  spades,  called  by  the  turf -cut- 
ters "  tommy-spades ;"  and  the  dried  cakes  of  turf  were  after- 
ward used  to  form  the  embankment,  until  at  length,  as  the  stuff 
sank  and  rested  upon  the  bottom,  the  bank  gradually  rose  above 
the  surface,  and  slowly  advanced  onward,  declining  in  height  and 
consequently  in  weight,  until  it  became  joined  to  the  floating 
road  already  laid  upon  the  Moss.  In  the  course'  of  forming  the 
embankment,  the  pressure  of  the  bog  turf  tipped  out  of  the  wag- 
ons caused  a  copious  stream  of  bog-water  to  flow  from  the  end  of 
it,  in  color  resembling  Barclay's  double  stout ;  and  when  conf- 
pleted,  the  bank  looked  like  a  long  ridge  of  tightly-pressed  to- 
bacco-leaf. The  compression  of  the  turf  may  be  understood 
from  the  fact  that  670,000  cubic  yards  of  raw  moss  formed  only 
277,000  cubic  yards  of  embankment  at  the  completion  of  the 
work. 

At  the  western,  or  Liverpool  end  of  the  Chat  Moss,  there  was 
a  like  embankment ;  but,  as  the  ground  there  was  solid,  little 
difficulty  was  experienced  in  forming  it,  beyond  the  loss  of  sub- 
stance caused  by  the  oozing  out  of  the  water  held  by  the  moss- 
earth. 

At  another  part  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line,  Parr 
Moss  was  crossed  by  an  embankment  about  a  mile  and  a  half  in 
extent.  In  the  immediate  neighborhood  was  found  a  large  ex- 
cess of  cutting,  which  it  would  have  been  necessary  to  "  put  out 
in  spoil-banks"  (according  to  the  technical  phrase)  but  for  the 
convenience  of  Parr  Moss,  into  which  the  surplus  clay,  stone,  and 
shale  were  tipped,  wagon  after  wagon,  until  a  solid  but  congeal- 
ed embankment,  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  high,  was  formed,  al- 
though to  the  eye  it  appears  to  be  laid  upon  the  level  of  the  ad- 
joining surface,  as  at  Chat  Moss. 

The  road  across  Chat  Moss  was  finished  by  the  1st  of  January, 
1830,  when  the  first  experimental  train  of  passengers  passed  over 


CHAP.  XL]  ORGANIZATION  OF  LABOR.  289 

it,  drawn  by  the  "  Rocket ;"  and  it  turned  out  that,  instead  of  be- 
ing the  most  expensive  part  of  the  line,  it  was  about  the  cheapest. 
The  total  cost  of  forming  the  line  over  the  Moss  was  £28,000, 
whereas  Mr.  Giles's  estimate  was  £270,000 !  It  also  proved  to  be 
one  of  the  best  portions  of  the  railway.  Being  a  floating  road,  it 
was  as  smooth  and  easy  to  run  upon  as  Dr.  Arnott's  water-bed  is 
soft  and  easy  to  lie  upon — the  pressure  being  equal  at  all  points. 
There  was,  and  still  is,  a  sort  of  springiness  in  the  road  over  the 
Moss,  such  as  is  felt  when  passing  along  a  suspended  bridge ;  and 
those  who  looked  along  the  Moss  as  a  train  passed  over  it  said 
they  could  observe  a  waviness;  such  as  precedes  and  follows  a 
skater  upon  ice. 

During  the  progress  of  the  works  the  most  ridiculous  rumors 
were  set  afloat.  The  drivers  of  the  stage-coaches,  who  feared  for 
their  calling,  brought  the  alarming  intelligence  into  Manchester 
from  time  to  time  that "  Chat  Moss  was  blown  up !"  "  Hundreds 
of  men  and  horses  had  sunk  in  the  bog;  and  the  works  were 
completely  abandoned !"  The  engineer  himself  was  declared  to 
have  been  swallowed  up  in  the  Serbonian  bog ;  and  "  railways 
were  at  an  end  forever !" 

In  the  construction  of  the  railway,  George  Stephenson's  capa- 
city for  organizing  and  directing  the  labors  of  a  large  number  of 
workmen  of  all  kinds  eminently  displayed  itself.  A  vast  quan- 
tity of  ballast- wagons  had  to  be  constructed  for  the  purposes  of 
the  work,  and  implements  and  materials  had  to  be  collected,  be- 
fore the  mass  of  labor  to  be  employed  could  be  efficiently  set  in 
motion  at  the  various  points  of  the  line.  There  were  not  at  that 
tune,  as  there  are  now,  large  contractors,  possessed  of  railway 
plant,  capable  of  executing  earthworks  on  a  large  scale.  Our  en- 
gineer had,  therefore,  not  only  to  contrive  the  plant,  but  to  or- 
ganize the  labor,  and  direct  it  in  person.  The  very  laborers  them- 
selves had  to  be  trained  to  their  work  by  him ;  and  it  was  on  the 
Liverpool  and  Manchester  line  that  Mr.  Stephenson  organized 
the  staff  of  that  formidable  band  of  railway  navvies,  whose  handi- 
works will  be  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  succeeding  genera- 
tions. Looking  at  their  gigantic  traces,  the  men  of  some  future 
age  may  be  found  to  declare,  of  the  engineer  and  of  his  work- 
men, that  "  there  were  giants  in  those  days." 

Although  the  works  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway 
T 


290  TUNNEL  AT  LIVERPOOL.  [PART  II. 

are  of  a  much  less  formidable  character  than  those  of  many  lines 
that  have  since  been  constructed,  they  were  then  regarded  as  of 
a  stupendous  kind.  Indeed,  few  works  of  such  magnitude  had 
before  been  executed  in  England.  It  had  been  the  engineer's 
original  intention  to  carry  the  railway  from  the  north  end  of 
Liverpool  round  the  red  sandstone  ridge  on  which  the  upper  part 
of  the  town  is  built,  and  also  round  the  higher  rise  of  the  coal 
formation  at  Rainhill,  by  following  the  natural  levels  to  the  north 
of  Knowsley.  But  the  opposition  of  the  land-owners  having 
forced  the  line  more  to  the  south,  it  was  rendered  necessary  to 
cut  through  the  hills,  and  go  over  the  high  grounds  instead  of 
round  them.  The  first  consequence  of  this  alteration  in  the  plans 
was  the  necessity  for  constructing  a  tunnel  under  the  town  of 
Liverpool  a  mile  and  a  half  in  length,  from  the  docks  at  Wap- 
ping  to  the  top'  of  Edgehill ;  the  second  was  the  necessity  for 
forming  a  long  and  deep  cutting  through  the  red  sandstone  rock 
at  Olive  Mount ;  and  the  third  and  worst  of  all  was  the  necessity 
for  ascending  and  descending  the  Whiston  and  Sutton  hills  by 
means  of  inclined  planes  of  1  in  96.  The  line  was  also,  by  the 
same  forced  deviation,  prevented  passing  through  the  Lancashire 
coal-field,  and  the  engineer  was  compelled  to  carry  the  works 
across  the  Sankey  valley  at  a  point  where  the  waters  of  the  brook 
had  dug  out  an  excessively  deep  channel  through  the  marl-beds 
of  the  district. 

The  principal  difficulty  was  experienced  in  pushing  on  the 
works  connected  with  the  formation  of  the  tunnel  under  Liver- 
pool, 2200  yards  in  length.  The  blasting  and  hewing  of  the 
rock  were  vigorously  carried  on  night  and  day;  and  the  engi- 
neer's practical  experience  in  the  collieries  here  proved  of  great 
use  to  him.  Many  obstacles  had  to  be  encountered  and  overcome 
in  the  formation  of  the  tunnel,  the  rock  varying  in  hardness  and 
texture  at  different  parts.  In  some  places  the  miners  were  deluged 
by  water,  which  surged  from  the  soft  blue  shale  found  at  the  low- 
est level  of  the  tunnel.  In  other  places  beds  of  wet  sand  were 
cut  through,  and  there  careful  propping  and  pinning  were  neces- 
sary to  prevent  the  roof  from  tumbling  in  until  the  masonry  to 
support  it  could  be  erected.  On  one  occasion,  while  Stephenson 
was  absent  from  Liverpool,  a  mass  of  loose  moss-earth  and  sand 
fell  from  the  roof,  which  had  been  insufficiently  propped.  The 


CHAP.  XI.] 


OLIVE  MOUNT  CUTTING. 


291 


miners  withdrew  from  the  work;  and  on  the  engineer's  return 
he  found  them  in  a  refractory  state,  refusing  to  re-enter  the  tun- 
nel. He  induced  them,  however,  by  his  example,  to  return  to 
then*  labors ;  and  when  the  roof  had  been  secured,  the  work  went 
on  again  as  before.  When  there  was  danger,  he  was  always 
ready  to  share  it  with  the  men ;  and,  gathering  confidence  from 
his  fearlessness,  they  proceeded  vigorously  with  the  undertaking, 
boring  and  mining  their  way  toward  the  light. 

The  Olive  Mount  cutting  was  the  first  extensive  stone  cutting 


[By  Percival  Skelton.] 


executed  on  any  railway,  and  to  this  day  it  is  one  of  the  most  for- 
midable. It  is  about  two  miles  long,  and  in  some  parts  more  than 
a  hundred  feet  deep.  It  is  a  narrow  ravine  or  defile  cut  out  of 
the  solid  rock,  and  not  less  than  four  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
cubic  yards  of  stone  were  removed  from  it.  Mr.  Yignolles,  after- 


* 


SANKEY  VIADUCT.— BRIDGES. 


[PAET  H. 


ward  describing  it,  said  it  looked  as  if  it  had  been  dug  out  by 
giants. 

The  crossing  of  so  many  roads  and  streams  involved  the  neces- 
sity for  constructing  an  unusual  number  of  bridges.  There  were 
not  fewer  than  sixty-three,  under  or  over  the  railway,  on  the  thir- 
ty miles  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester.  Up  to  this  time 
bridges  had  been  applied  generally  to  high  roads,  where  inclined 
approaches  were  of  comparatively  small  importance,  and  in  de- 


8ANKBT  VIADUCT.    [By  Percival  Skelton.] 


termining  the  rise  of  his  arch  the  engineer  selected  any  headway 
he  thought  proper.  Every  consideration  was  indeed  made  sub- 
sidiary to  constructing  the  bridge  itself,  and  the  completion  of 
one  large  structure  of  this  sort  was  regarded  as  an  epoch  in  engi- 
neering history.  Yet  here,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  no  fewer 
than  sixty-three  bridges  were  constructed  on  one  line  of  railway ! 
Mr.  Stephenson  early  found  that  the  ordinary  arch  was  inapplica- 
ble hi  certain  cases,  where  the  headway  was  limited,  and  yet  the 


CHAP.XI.]  SANKEY  VIADUCT.— FUNDS  LOW.  293 

level  of  the  railway  must  be  preserved.  In  such  cases  he  em- 
ployed simple  cast-iron  beams,  by  which  he  safely  bridged  gaps 
of  moderate  width,  economizing  headway,  and  introducing  the 
use  of  a  new  material  of  the  greatest  possible  value  to  the  engi- 
neer. The  bridges  of  masonry  upon  the  line  were  of  many  kinds ; 
several  of  them  were  skew  bridges,  while  others,  such  as  those  at 
Newton  and  over  the  Irwell  at  Manchester,  were  straight  and  of 
considerable  dimensions.  But  the  principal  piece  of  masonry  on 
the  line  was  the  Sankey  viaduct 

This  fine  work  is  principally  of  brick,  with  stone  facings.  It 
consists  of  nine  arches  of  fifty  feet  span  each.  The  massive  piers 
are  supported  on  two  hundred  piles  driven  deep  into  the  soil ; 
and  they  rise  to  a  great  height — the  coping  of  the  parapet  being 
seventy  feet  above  the  level  of  the  valley,  in  which  flow  the  San- 
key  brook^fcnd  Canal.  Its  total  cost  was  about  £45,000. 

By  the  end  of  1828  the  directors  found  they  had  expended 
£460,000  on  the  works,  and  that  they  were  still  far  from  com- 
pletion. They  looked  at  the  loss  of  interest  on  this  large  invest- 
ment, and  began  to  grumble  at  the  delay.  They  desired  to  see 
their  capital  becoming  productive ;  and  in  the  spring  of  1829 
they  urged  the  engineer  to  push  on  the  works  with  increased 
vigor.  Mr.  Cropper,  one  of  the  directors,  who  took  an  active  in- 
terest in  their  progress,  said  to  Stephenson  one  day, "Now,  George, 
thou  must  get  on  with  the  railway,  and  have  it  finished  without 
farther  delay :  thou  must  really  have  it  ready  for  opening  by  the 
first  day  of  January  next."  "  Consider  the  heavy  character  of 
the  works,  sir,  and  how  much  we  have  been  delayed  by  the  want 
of  money,  not  to  speak  of  the  wetness  of  the  weather :  it  is  im- 
possible." "  Impossible !"  rejoined  Cropper ;  "  I  wish  I  could  get 
Napoleon  to  thee — he  would  tell  thee  there  is  no  such  word  as 
'  impossible'  in  the  vocabulary."  "  Tush !"  exclaimed  Stephenson, 
with  warmth,  "  don't  speak  to  me  about  Napoleon !  Give  me 
men,  money,  and  materials,  and  I  will  do  what  Napoleon  couldn't 
do — drive  a  railroad  from  Liverpool  to  Manchester  over  Chat 
Moss !"  And  truly  the  formation  of  a  high  road  over  that  bot- 
tomless bog  was  apparently  a  more  difficult  task  than  the  making 
even  of  Napoleon's  far-famed  road  across  the  Simplon. 

The  directors  had  more  than  once  been  embarrassed  by  want 
of  funds  to  meet  the  heavy  expenditure.  The  country  had  scarce- 


294  STEPHENSON'S  GREAT  LABORS.  [PART  II. 

ly  yet  recovered  from  the  general  panic  and  crash  of  1825,  and  it 
was  with  difficulty  that  the  calls  could  be  raised  from  the  share- 
holders. A  loan  of  £100,000  was  obtained  from  the  Exchequer 
Loan  Commissioners  in  1826 ;  and  in  1829  an  act  was  passed 
enabling  the  company  to  raise  farther  capital,  to  provide  working 
plant  for  the  railway.  Two  acts  were  also  obtained  during  the 
progress  of  the  undertaking,  enabling  deviations  and  alterations 
to  be  made ;  one  to  improve  the  curves  and  shorten  the  line  near 
Rainhill,  and  the  other  to  carry  the  line  across  the  Irwell  into 
the  town  of  Manchester.  Thanks  to  the  energy  of  the  engineer, 
the  industry  of  his  laborers,  and  the  improved  supply  of  money  by 
the  directors,  the  railway  made  rapid  progress  in  the  course  of  the 
year  1829.  Double  sets  of  laborers  were  employed  on  Chat  Moss 
and  at  other  places  in  carrying  on  the  works  by  night  and  day, 
the  night  shifts  working- by  torch  and  fire  light;  an£at  length, 
the  work  advancing  at  all  points,  the  directors  saw  their  way  to 
the  satisfactory  completion  of  the  undertaking. 

It  may  well  be  supposed  that  Stephenson's  time  was  fully  oc- 
cupied in  superintending  the  extensive  and  for  the  most  part 
novel  works  connected  with  the  railway,  and  that  even  his  ex- 
traordinary powers  of  labor  and  endurance  were  taxed  to  the  ut- 
most during  the  four  years  that  they  were  in  progress.  Almost 
every  detail  in  the  plans  was  directed  and  arranged  by  himself. 
Every  bridge,  from  the  simplest  to  the  most  complicated,  includ- 
ing the  then  novel  structure  of  the  "  skew  bridge,"  iron  girders, 
siphons,  fixed  engines,  and  the  machinery  for  working  the  tunnel 
at  the  Liverpool  end,  had  all  to  be  thought  out  by  his  own  head, 
and  reduced  to  definite  plans  under  his  own  eyes.  Besides  all 
this,  he  had  to  design  the  working  plant  in  anticipation  of  the 
opening  of  the  railway.  He  must  be  prepared  with  wagons, 
trucks,  and  carriages,  liimself  superintending  their  manufacture. 
The  permanent  road,  turn-tables,  switches,  and  crossings  —  in 
short,  the  entire  structure  and  machinery  of  the  line,  from  the 
turning  of  the  first  sod  to  the  running  of  the  first  train  of  car- 
riages on  the  railway,  went  on  under  his  immediate  supervision. 
And  it  was  in  the  midst  of  this  vast  accumulation  of  work  and 
responsibility  that  the  battle  of  the  locomotive  engine  had  to  be 
fought  —  a  battle  not  merely  against  material  diificulties,  but 
against  the  still  more  trying  obstructions  of  deeply-rooted  mis- 


CHAP.  XI.]  HIS  ROUTINE  OF 


trust  and  prejudice  on  the  part  of  a  considerabTeTranority  of  the 
directors. 

He  had  no  staff  of  experienced  assistants — not  even  a  staff  of 
draughtsmen  in  his  office — but  only  a  few  pupils  learning  their 
business,  and  he  was  frequently  without  even  their  help.  The 
time  of  his  engineering  inspectors  was  fully  occupied  in  the  ac- 
tual superintendence  of  the  works  at  different  parts  of  the  line, 
and  he  took  care  to  direct  all  their  important  operations  in  per- 
son. The  principal  draughtsman  was  Mr.  Thomas  Gooch,  a  pupil 
he  had  brought  with  him  from  Newcastle.  "  I  may  say,"  writes 
Mr.  Gooch,  "  that  nearly  the  whole  of  the  working  and  other 
drawings,  as  well  as  the  various  land-plans  for  the  railway,  were 
drawn  by  my  own  hand.  They  were  done  at  the  company's 
office  in  Clayton  Square  during  the  day,  from  instructions  sup- 
plied in  the  evenings  by  Mr.  Stephenson,  either  by  word  of 
mouth,  or  by  little  rough  hand  sketches  on  letter-paper.  The 
evenings  were  also  generally  devoted  to  my  duties  as  secretary, 
in  writing  (mostly  from  his  own  dictation)  his  letters  and  re- 
ports, or  in  making  calculations  and  estimates.  The  mornings 
before  breakfast  were  not  unfrequently  spent  by  me  in  visiting 
and  lending  a  helping  hand  in  the  tunnel  and  other  works  near 
Liverpool — the  untiring  zeal  and  perseverance  of  George  Ste- 
phenson never  for  an  instant  flagging,  and  inspiring  with  a  like 
enthusiasm  all  who  were  engaged  under  him  in  carrying  forward 
the  works."* 

The  usual  routine  of  his  life  at  this  time — if  routine  it  could 
be  called — was  to  rise  early,  by  sunrise  in  summer  and  before  it 
in  winter,  and  "  break  the  back  of  the  day's  work"  by  midday. 
Wliile  the  tunnel  under  Liverpool  was  in  progress,  one  of  his  first 
duties  in  the  morning  before  breakfast  was  to  go  over  the  various 
shafts,  clothed  in  a  suitable  dress,  and  inspect  the  progress  of  the 

/ 

*  Mr.  Gooch's  letter  to  the  author,  December  13th,  1861.  Referring  to  the  prep- 
aration of  the  plans  and  drawings,  Mr.  Gooch  adds,  "When  we  consider  the  ex- 
tensive sets  of  drawings  which  most  engineers  have  since  found  it  right  "O  adopt  in 
carrying  out  similar  works,  it  is  not  the  least  surprising  feature  in  G*->rge  Stephen- 
son's  early  professional  career  that  he  should  have  been  able  to  cop-^ne  himself  to  so 
limited  a  number  as  that  which  could  be  supplied  by  the  hands  »*  one  person  in  car- 
rying out  the  construction  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway ;  and  this  may 
still  be  said,  after  full  allowance  is  made  for  the  alteration  of  system  involved  by  the 
adoption  of  the  large  contract  system. " 


296  STEPHENSON  'S  BAIL  Y  0 CCUPA  TIONS.  [PART  II. 

work  at  different  points ;  on  other  days  he  would  visit  the  ex- 
tensive workshops  at  Edgehill,  where  most  of  the  "plant"  for  the 
line  was  manufactured.  Then,  returning  to  his  house  in  Upper 
Parliament  Street,  Windsor,  after  a  hurried  breakfast,  he  would 
ride  along  the  works  to  inspect  their  progress,  and  push  them  on 
with  greater  energy  where  needful.  On  other  days  he  would 
prepare  for  the  much  less  congenial  engagement  of  meeting  the 
board,  which  was  often  a  cause  of  great  anxiety  and  pain  to  him ; 
for  it  was  difficult  to  satisfy  men  of  all  tempers,  some  of  which 
were  not  of  the  most  generous  kind.  On  such  occasions  he  might 
be  seen  with  his  right-hand  thumb  thrust  through  the  topmost 
button -hole  of  his  coat -breast,  vehemently  hitching  his  right 
shoulder,  as  was  his  habit  when  laboring  under  any  considerable 
excitement.  Occasionally  he  would  take  an  early  ride  before 
breakfast,  to  inspect  the  progress  of  the  Sankey  viaduct.  He 


STEPUESSCXN'S   BAITING-PLACE  AT   BANKEY, 


had  a  favorite  horse,  brought  by  him  from  Newcastle,  called 
"Booby" — so  tractable  that,  with  his  rider  on  his  back,  he  would 
walk  up  to  a  locomotive  with  the  steam  blowing  off,  and  put  his 
nose  agaii^t  it  without  shying.  «  Bobby,"  saddled  and  bridled, 
was  brought  to  Stephenson's  door  betimes  in  the  morning,  and, 
mounting  him,  I*,  would  ride  the  fifteen  miles  to  Sankey,  putting 
up  at  a  little  publv>  house  which  then  stood  upon  the  banks  of 
the  canal.  There  he  had  his  breakfast  of  «  crowdie,"  which  he 


CHAP.  XI.]  HIS  CORRESPONDENCE.  297 

made  with  his  own  hands.  It  consisted  of  oatmeal  stirred  into 
a  basin  of  hot  water — a  sort  of  porridge — which  was  supped 
with  cold  sweet  milk.  After  this  frugal  breakfast  he  would  go 
upon  the  works,  and  remain  there,  riding  from  point  to  point  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  day.  If  he  returned  home  before  midday 
it  would  be  to  examine  the  pay-sheets  in  the  different  depart- 
ments sent  in  by  the  assistant  engineers,  or  by  the  foremen  of 
the  workshops ;  all  this  he  did  himself  with  the  greatest  care,  re- 
quiring a  full  explanation  of  every  item. 

After  a  late  dinner,  winch  occupied  very  short  time  and  was 
always  of  a  plain  and  frugal  description,*  he  would  proceed  to 
dispose  of  his  correspondence,  or  prepare  sketches  of  drawings, 
and  give  instructions  as  to  their  completion.  He  would  occasion- 
ally refresh  himself  for  this  evening  work  by  a  short  doze,  which, 
however,  he  would  never  admit  had  exceeded  the  limits  of  "  wink- 
ing," to  use  his  own  term.  Mr.  Frederick  Swanwick,  who  offici- 
ated as  his  secretary  after  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Gooch  as  resi- 
dent engineer  to  the  Bolton  and  Leigh  Railway,  has  informed  us 
that  he  then  remarked — what  in  after  years  he  could  better  ap- 
preciate— the  clear,  terse,  and  vigorous  style  of  Stephenson's  dic- 
tation ;  there  was  nothing  superfluous  in  it,  but  it  was  close,  di- 
rect, and  to  the  point — in  short,  thoroughly  business-like.  And  if, 
in  passing  through  the  pen  of  the  amanuensis,  his  meaning  hap- 
pened in  any  way  to  be  distorted  or  modified,  it  did  not  fail  to  es- 
cape his  detection,  though  he  was  always  tolerant  of  any  liberties 
taken  with  his  own  f  orm  of  expression,  so  long  as  the  words  writ- 
ten down  conveyed  his  real  meaning.  His  strong  natural  acumen 
showed  itself  even  in  such  matters  as  grammar  and  composition 
— a  department  of  knowledge  in  which,  it  might  be  supposed,  he 

*  While  at  Liverpool  Stephenson  had  very  little  time  for  "  company ;"  bat  on  one 
particular  occasion  he  invited  his  friend  Mr.  Sandars  to  dinner,  and,  as  that  gentle- 
man was  a  connoisseur  in  port  wine,  his  host  determined  to  give  him  a  special  treat 
of  that  drink.  Stephenson  accordingly  went  to  the  small  merchant  with  whom  he 
usually  dealt,  and  ordered  "half  a  dozen  of  his  very  best  port  wine,"  which  was 
promised  of  first-rate  quality.  After  dinner  the  wine  was  produced ;  and  when  Mr. 
Sandars  had  sipped  a  glass,  George,  after  waiting  a  little  for  the  expected  euloginm, 
at  length  asked,  "Well,  Sandars,  how  d'ye  like  the  port  ?"  "Poor  stuff!"  said  the 
guest,  "poor  stuff!"  George  was  very  much  shocked,  and  with  difficulty  recovered 
his  good  humor.  But  he  lived  to  be  able  to  treat  Mr.  Sandars  to  a  better  article  at 
Tapton  House,  when  he  used  to  laugh  over  his  first  futile  attempt  at  Liverpool  to 
gain  a  reputation  for  his  port. 


298  INSTRUCTION  OF  HIS  PUPILS.  [PART  II. 

could  scarcely  have  had  either  time  or  opportunity  to  acquire 
much  information.  But  here,  as  in  all  other  things,  his  shrewd 
common  sense  came  to  his  help,  and  his  simple,  vigorous  English 
might  almost  be  cited  as  a  model  of  composition. 

His  letters  and  reports  written,  and  his  sketches  of  drawings 
made  and  explained,  the  remainder  of  the  evening  was  usually 
devoted  to  conversation  with  his  wife  and  those  of  his  pupils  who 
lived  under  his  roof,  and  constituted,  as  it  were,  part  of  the  family. 
He  then  delighted  to  test  the  knowledge  of  his  young  companions, 
and  to  question  them  upon  the  principles  of  mechanics.  If  they 
were  not  quite  "  up  to  the  mark"  on  any  point,  there  was  no  es- 
caping detection  by  evasive  or  specious  explanations  on  their  part. 
These  always  met  with  the  verdict  of,  "  Ah !  you  know  naught 
about  it  now ;  but  think  it  over  again,  and  tell  me  the  answer 
when  you  understand  it."  If  there  was  even  partial  success  in 
the  reply,  it  would  at  once  be  acknowledged,  and  a  full  explana- 
tion was  given,  to  which  the  master  would  add  illustrative  exam- 
ples for  the  purpose  of  impressing  the  principle  more  deeply  upon 
the  pupil's  mind. 

It  was  not  so  much  his  object  and  purpose  to  "  cram"  the  minds 
of  the  young  men  committed  to  his  charge  with  the  results  of 
knowledge  as  to  stimulate  them  to  educate  themselves — to  induce 
them  to  develop  their  mental  and  moral  powers  by  the  exercise 
of  their  own  free  energies,  and  thus  acquire  that  habit  of  self- 
thinking  and  self-reliance  which  is  the  spring  of  all  true  manly 
action.  In  a  word,  he  sought  to  bring  out  and  invigorate  the 
character  of  his  pupils.  He  felt  that  he  himself  had  been  made 
stronger  and  better  through  his  encounters  with  difficulty,  and 
he  would  not  have  the  road  of  knowledge  made  too  smooth  and 
easy  for  them.  "  Learn  for  yourselves — think  for  yourselves,"  he  > 
would  say :  "  make  yourselves  masters  of  principles — persevere — 
be  industrious — and  there  is  then  no  fear  of  you."  And  not  tlie 
least  emphatic  proof  of  the  soundness  of  this  system  of  education, 
as  conducted  by  George  Stephenson,  was  afforded  by  the  after 
history  of  the  pupils  themselves.  There  was  not  one  of  those 
trained  under  his  eye  who  did  not  rise  to  eminent  usefulness  and 
distinction  as  an  engineer.  He  sent  them  forth  into  the  world 
braced  with  the  spirit  of  self-help — inspired  by  his  own  noble  ex- 
ample ;  and  they  repeated  in  their  after  career  the  lessons  of  ear- 


CHAP.  XL]  EVENINGS  AT  HOME.— CHAT  MOSS.  299 

nest  effort  and  persistent  industry  which  his  daily  life  had  taught 
them. 

Mr.  Stephenson's  evenings  at  home  were  not,  however,  exclu- 
sively devoted  either  to  business  or  to  the  graver  exercises  above 
referred  to.  He  would  often  indulge  in  cheerful  conversation 
and  anecdote,  falling  back  from  time  to  time  upon  the  struggles 
and  difficulties  of  his  early  life.  The  not  unfrequent  winding  up 
of  his  story,  addressed  to  those  about  him,  was,  "Ah!  ye  young 
fellows  don't  know  what  wark  is  in  these  days !"  Mr.  Swanwick 
delights  recalling  to  mind  how  seldom,  if  ever,  a  cross  or  captious 
word,  or  an  angry  look,  marred  the  enjoyment  of  those  evenings. 
The  presence  of  Mrs.  Stephenson  gave  them  an  additional  charm : 
amiable,  kind-hearted,  and  intelligent,  she  shared  quietly  in  the 
pleasure  of  the  party ;  and  the  atmosphere  of  comfort  which  al- 
ways pervaded  her  home  contributed,  in  no  small  degree  to  ren- 
der it  a  centre  of  cheerful,  hopeful  intercourse,  and  of  earnest, 
honest  industry. 


CHAT  JJO88 — WORKB   IN   PROGRESS. 


When  Stephenson  retired  for  the  night,  it  was  not  always  that 
he  permitted  himself  to  sink  into  slumber.  Like  BrincQey,  he 
worked  out  many  a  difficult  problem  in  bed ;  and  for  hours  he 
would  turn  over  in  his  mind  and  study  how  to  overcome  some 
obstacle,  or  to  mature  some  project,  on  which  his  thoughts  were 


300  AN  EARLY  RISER.  [PART  II. 

bent.  Some  remark  inadvertently  dropped  by  him  at  the  break- 
fast-table in  the  morning  served  to  show  that  he  had  been  steal- 
ing some  hours  from  the  night  in  reflection  and  study.  Yet 
he  would  rise  at  his  accustomed  early  hour,  and  there  was  no 
abatement  of  his  usual  energy  in  carrying  on  the  business  of 
the  day. 


CHAP.  XII]  ROBERT  STEPHENSON.  301 


CHAPTEK  XH. 

ROBERT  STEPHENSON'S  RESIDENCE  IN  COLOMBIA,  AND  RETURN — THE 
BATTLE  OF  THE  LOCOMOTIVE "THE  ROCKET." 

WE  return  to  the  career  of  Robert  Stephenson,  who  was  absent 
from  England  during  the  construction  of  the  Liverpool  Railway, 
but  was  now  about  to  rejoin  his  father  and  take  part  in  "  the 
battle  of  the  locomotive"  which  was  impending. 

"We  have  seen  that,  on  his  return  from  Edinburg  College  at 
the  end  of  1821,  he  had  assisted  in  superintending  the  works  of 
the  Hetton  Railway  until  its  opening  in  1822,  after  which  he 
proceeded  to  Liverpool  to  take  part  with  Mr.  James  in  surveying 
the  proposed  railway  there.  In  the  following  year  we  found  him 
assisting  his  father  in  the  working  survey  of  the  Stockton  and 
Darlington  Railway ;  and  when  the  Locomotive  Engine  Works 
were  started  in  Forth  Street,  Newcastle,  he  took  an  active  part 
in  that  concern.  "  The  factory,"  he  says, "  was  in  active  opera- 
tion in  1824 ;  I  left  England  for  Colombia  in  June  of  that  year, 
having  finished  drawing  the  designs  of  the  Brusselton  stationary 
engines  for  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway  before  I  left."* 

Speculation  was  very  rife  at  the  time,  and  among  the  most 
promising  adventures  were  the  companies  organized  for  the  pur- 
pose of  working  the  gold  and  silver  mines  of  South  America. 
Great  difficulty  was  experienced  in  finding  mining  engineers 
capable  of  carrying  out  those  projects,  and  young  men  of  even 
the  most  moderate  experience  were  eagerly  sought  after.  The 
Colombian  Mining  Association  of  London  offered  an  engagement 
to  young  Stephenson  to  go  out  to  Mariquita  and  take  charge  of 
the  engineering  operations  of  that  company.  Robert  was  him- 
self desirous  of  accepting  it,  but  his  father  said  it  would  first  be 
necessary  to  ascertain  whether  the  proposed  change  would  be  for 
his  good.  His  health  had  been  very  delicate  for  some  time, 
partly  occasioned  by  his  rapid  growth,  but  principally  because  of 
*  Letter  to  the  author. 


302  PROCEEDS-  TO  SOUTH  AMERICA.  [PAKT  II. 

his  close  application  to  work  and  study.  Father  and  son  pro- 
ceeded together  to  call  upon  Dr.  Headlam,  the  eminent  physician 
of  Newcastle,  to  consult  him  on  the  subject.  During  the  exam- 
ination which  ensued,  Robert  afterward  used  to  say  that  he  felt 
as  if  he  were  upon  trial  for  life  or  death.  To  his  great  relief,  the 
doctor  pronounced  that  a  temporary  residence  in  a  warm  climate 
was  the  very  thing  likely  to  be  most  beneficial  to  him.  The  ap- 
pointment was  accordingly  accepted,  and,  before  many  weeks  had 
passed,  Robert  Stephenson  had  set  sail  for  South  America. 

After  a  tolerably  prosperous  voyage  he  landed  at  La  Guayra, 
on  the  north  coast  of  Venezuela,  on  the  23d  of  July,  from  thence 
proceeding  to  Caraccas,  the  capital  of  the  district,  about  fifteen 
miles  inland.  There  he  remained  for  two  months,  unable  to  pro- 
ceed in  consequence  of  the  wretched  state  of  the  roads  in  the  in- 
terior. He  contrived,  however,  to  make  occasional  excursions  in 
the  neighborhood  with  an  eye  to  the  mining  business  on  which 
he  had  come.  About  the  beginning  of  October  he  set  out  for 
Bogota,  the  capital  of  Colombia  or  New  Granada.  The  distance 
was  about  twelve  hundred  miles,  through  a  very  difficult  region, 
and  it  was  performed  entirely  upon  mule-back,  after  the  fashion 
of  the  country. 

In  the  course  of  the  journey  Robert  visited  many  of  the  dis- 
tricts reported  to  be  rich  in  minerals,  but  he  met  with  few  traces 
except  of  copper,  iron,  and  coal,  with  occasional  indications  of 
gold  and  silver.  He  found  the  people  ready  to  furnish  informa- 
tion, which,  however,  when  tested,  usually  proved  worthless.  A 
guide,  whom  he  employed  for  weeks,  kept  him  buoyed  up  with 
the  hope  of  finding  richer  mining  places  than  he  had  yet  seen ; 
but  when  he  professed  to  be  able  to  show  him  mines  of  ~l  brass, 
steel,  alcohol,  and  pinchbeck,"  Stephenson  discovered  him  to  be 
an  incorrigible  rogue,  and  immediately  dismissed  him.  At  length 
our  traveler  reached  Bogota,  and  after  an  interview  with  Mr.  II- 
lingworth,  the  commercial  manager  of  the  Mining  Company,  he 
proceeded  to  Honda,  crossed  the  Magdalena,  and  shortly  after 
reached  the  site  of  his  intended  operations  on  the  eastern  slope 
of  the  Andes. 

Mr.  Stephenson  used  afterward  to  speak  in  glowing  terms  of 
this  his  first  mule-journey  in  South  America.  Every  thing  was 
entirely  new  to  him.  The  variety  and  beauty  of  the  indigenous 


CHAP.  XII.]  RESIDENCE  AT  MARIQUITA.  303 

plants,  the  luxurious  tropical  vegetation,  the  appearance,  man- 
ners, and  dress  of  the  people,  and  the  mode  of  traveling,  were  al- 
together different  from  every  thing  he  had  before  seen.  His  own 
traveling  garb  also  must  have  been  strange  even  to  himself.  "  My 
hat,"  he  says,  "  was  of  plaited  grass,  with  a  crown  nine  inches  in 
height,  surrounded  by'a  brim  of  six  inches ;  a  white  cotton  suit ; 
and  a  ruana  of  blue  and  crimson  plaid,  with  a  hole  in  the  centre 
for  the  head  to  pass  through.  This  cloak  is  admirably  adapted 
for  the  purpose,  amply  covering  the  rider  and  mule,  and  at  night 
answering  the  purpose  of  a  blanket  in  the  net-hammock,  which  is 
made  from  the  fibres  of  the  aloe,  and  which  every  traveler  car- 
ries before  him  on  his  mule,  and  suspends  to  the  trees  or  in 
houses,  as  occasion  may  require." 

The  part  of  the  journey  which  seems  to  have  made  the  most 
lasting  impression  on  his  mind  was  that  between  Bogota  and  the 
mining  district  in  the  neighborhood  of  Mariquita.  As  he  ascend- 
ed the  slopes  of  the  mountain  range,  and  reached  the  first  step  of 
the  table-land,  he  was  struck  beyond  expression  with  the  noble 
view  of  the  valley  of  Magdalena  behind  him,  so  vast  that  he  fail- 
ed in  attempting  to  define  the  point  at  which  the  course  of  the 
river  blended  with  the  horizon.  Like  all  travelers  in  the  district, 
he  noted  the  remarkable  changes  of  climate  and  vegetation  as  he 
rose  from  the  burning  plains  toward  the  fresh  breath  of  the 
mountains.  From  an  atmosphere  as  hot  as  that  of  an  oven  he 
passed  into  delicious  cool  air,  until,  in  his  onward  and  upward 
journey,  a  still  more  temperate  region  was  reached,  the  very  per- 
fection of  climate.  Before  him  rose  the  majestic  Cordilleras, 
forming  a  rampart  against  the  western  sky,  and  at  certain  times 
of  the  day  looking  black,  sharp,  and  even  at  their  summit  almost 
like  a  wall. 

Our  engineer  took  up  his  abode  for  a  time  at  Mariquita,  a  fine 
old  city,  thoiigh  then  greatly  fallen  into  decay.  During  the  pe- 
riod of  the  Spanish  dominion  it  was  an  important  place,  most  of 
the  gold  and  silver  convoys  passing  through  It  on  their  way  to 
Cartagena,  there  to  be  shipped  in  galleons  for  Europe.  The 
mountainous  country  to  the  west  was  rich  in  silver,  gold,  and  oth- 
er metals,  and  it  was  Mr.  Stephenson's  object  to  select  the  best 
site  for  commencing  operations  for  the  company.  With  this  ob- 
ject he  "  prospected"  about  in  all  directions,  visiting  long-aban- 


304:  MINING  INTRIGUES.  [PABT  II. 

doned  mines,  and  analyzing  specimens  obtained  from'  many  quar- 
ters. The  mines  eventually  fixed  upon  as  the  scene  of  his  opera- 
tions were  those  of  La  Manta  and  Santa  Anna,  long  before  work- 
ed by  the  Spaniards,  though,  in  consequence  of  the  luxuriance 
and  rapidity  of  the  vegetation,  all  traces  of  the  old  workings  had 
become  completely  overgrown  and  lost.  Every  thing  had  to  be 
begun  anew.  Koads  had  to  be  cut  to  open  a  way  to  the  mines, 
machinery  had  to  be  erected,  and  the  ground  opened  up,  when 
some  of  the  old  adits  were  eventually  hit  upon.  The  native  peons 
or  laborers  were  not  accustomed  to  work,  and  they  usually  con- 
trived to  desert  when  they  were  not  watched,  so  that  very  little 
progress  could  be  made  until  the  arrival  of  the  expected  band  of 
miners  from  England.  The  authorities  were  by  no  means  help- 
ful, and  the  engineer  was  driven  to  an  old  expedient  with  the  ob- 
ject of  overcoming  this  difficulty.  "  We  endeavor  all  we  can," 
he  says,  in  one  of  his  letters, "  to  make  ourselves  popular,  and 
this  we  find  most  effectually  accomplished  by  '  regaling  the  venal 
beasts.' "  He  also  gave  a  ball  at  Mariquita,  which  passed  off 
with  eclat,  the  governor  from  Honda,  with  a  host  of  friends,  hon- 
oring it  with  their  presence.  It  was,  indeed,  necessary  to  "make 
a  party"  in  this  way,  as  other  schemers  were  already  trying  to 
undermine  the  Colombian  Company  in  influential  directions. 
The  engineer  did  not  exaggerate  when  he  said, "  The  uncertainty 
of  transacting  business  in  this  country  is  perplexing  beyond  de- 
scription." In  the  mean  time  laborers  had  been  attracted  to 
Santa  Anna,  which  became,  the  engineer  wrote, "  like  an  English 
fair  on  Sundays :  people  flock  to  it  from  all  quarters  to  buy  beef 
and  chat  with  their  friends.  Sometimes  three  or  four  torros  are 
slaughtered  in  a  day.  The  people  now  eat  more  beef  in  a  week 
than  they  did  in  two  months  before,  and  they  are  consequent- 
ly getting  fat."* 

At  last  Stephenson's  party  of  miners  arrived  from  England, 
but  they  gave  him  even  more  trouble  than  the  peons  had  done. 
They  were  rough,  drunken,  and  sometimes  ungovernable.  He 

*  Letter  to  Mr.  Illingworth,  September  25th,  1825.  The  reports  made  to  the  di- 
rectors and  officers  of  the  company,  which  we  have  seen,  contain  the  details  of  the 
operations  carried  on  at  the  mines,  but  they  are  as  dry  and  uninteresting  as  such  re- 
ports usually  are,  and  furnish  no  materials  calculated  to  illustrate  the  subject  of  the 
text. 


CHAP.  XII.]  MINING  QUARRELS.  305 

set  them  to  work  at  the  Santa  Anna  mine  without  delay,  and  at 
the  same  time  took  up  his  abode  among  them, "  to  keep  them," 
he  said, "  if  possible,  from  indulging  in  the  detestable  vice  of 
drunkenness,  which,  if  not  put  a  stop  to,  will  eventually  destroy 
themselves,  and  involve  the  mining  association  in  ruin."  To  add 
to  his  troubles,  the  captain  of  the  miners  displayed  a  very  hostile 
and  insubordinate  spirit,  quarreled  and  fought  with  the  men,  and 
was  insolent  to  the  engineer  himself.  The. captain  and  his  gang, 
being  Cornishmen,  told  Robert  to  his  face  that  because  he  was 
a  North-country  man,  and  not  brought  up  in  Cornwall,  it  was 
impossible  that  he  should  know  any  thing  of  mining.  Disease 
also  fell  upon  him — first  fever,  and  then  visceral  derangement, 
followed  by  a  return  of  his  "  old  complaint,  a  feeling  of  oppres- 
sion in  the  breast."  No  wonder  that  in  the  midst  of  these  troubles 
he  should  longingly  speak  of  returning  to  his  native  land.  But 
he  stuck  to  his  post  and  his  duty,  kept  up  his  courage,  and  by  a 
mixture  of  mildness  and  firmness,  and  the  display  of  great  cool- 
ness and  judgment,  he  contrived  to  keep  the  men  to  their  work, 
and  gradually  to  carry  forward  the  enterprise  which  he  had  un- 
dertaken. By  the  beginning  of  July,  1826,  quietness  and  order 
had  been  restored,  and  the  works  were  proceeding  more  satisf  ac-. 
torily,  though  the  yield  of  silver  was  not  as  yet  very  promising, 
the  engineer  being  of  opinion  that  at  least  three  years'  diligent 
and  costly  operations  would  be  necessary  to  render  the  mines 
productive. 

In  the  mean  time  he  removed  to  the  dwelling  which  had  been 
erected  for  his  accommodation  at  Santa  Anna.  It  was  a  struc- 
ture speedily  raised  after  the  fashion  of  the  country.  The  walls 
were  of  split  and  flattened  bamboo,  tied  together  with  the  long 
fibres  of  a  dried  climbing  plant;  the  roof  was  of  palm-leaves, 
and  the  ceiling  of  reeds.  When  an  earthquake  shook  the  dis- 
trict— for  earthquakes  were  frequent — the  inmates  of  such  a  fab- 
ric merely  felt  as  if  shaken  in  a  basket,  without  sustaining  any 
harm.  In  front  of  the  cottage  lay  a  woody  ravine,  extending  al- 
most to  the  base  of  the  Andes,  gorgeously  clothed  in  primeval 
vegetation — magnolias,  palms,  bamboos,  tree-ferns,  acacias,  ce- 
dars ;  and  towering  over  ah1  were  the  great  almendrons,  with 
their  smooth,  silvery  stems,  bearing  aloft  noble  clusters  of  pure 
white  blossom.  The  forest  was  haunted  by  myriads  of  gay  in- 


306 


COTTAGE  AT  SANTA  ANNA. 


[PART  II. 


sects,  butterflies  with  wings  of  dazzling  lustre,  birds  of  brilliant 
plumage,  humming-birds,  golden  orioles,  toucans,  and  a  host  of 
solitary  warblers.  But  the  glorious  sunsets  seen  from  his  cot- 
tage-porch more  than  all  astonished  and  delighted  the  young 
engineer,  and  he  was  accustomed  to  say  that,  after  having  wit- 
nessed them,  he  was  reluctant  to  accuse  the  ancient  Peruvians  of 
idolatry. 


EOKERT   STKPI1ENSOVS  COTTAG 


But  all  these  natural  beauties  failed  to  reconcile  him  to  the 
harassing  difficulties  of  his  position,  which  continued  to  increase 
rather  than  diminish.  He  was  hampered  by  the  action  of  the 
board  at  home,  who  gave  ear  to  hostile  criticisms  on  his  reports ; 
and  although  they  afterward  made  handsome  acknowledgment 
of  his  services,  he  felt  his  position  to  be  altogether  unsatisfactory. 
He  therefore  determined  to  leave  at  the  expiry  of  his  three  years' 
engagement,  and  communicated  his  decision  to  the  directors  ac- 
cordingly.* 

*  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Illingworth,  then  resident  at  Bogota,  dated  the  24th  of  March, 
1 826,  Robert  wrote  as  follows  :  ' '  Nothing  but  the  fullest  consent  of  my  partners  in 
England  could  induce  me  to  stay  in  this  country,  and  the  assurance  that  no  absolute 
necessity  existed  to  call  me  home.  I  must  also  have  the  consent  of  my  father.  I 


CHAP.  XII.]  URGED  TO  RETURN  HOME.  307 

On  receiving  his  letter,  the  board,  through  Mr.  Kichardson,  of 
Lombard  Street,  one  of  the  directors,  communicated  with  his  fa- 
ther at  Newcastle,  representing  that  if  he  would  allow  his  son  to 
remain  in  Colombia  the  company  would  make  it  "worth  his 
while."  To  this  the  father  gave  a  decided  negative,  and  inti- 
mated that  he  himself  urgently  needed  his  son's  assistance,  and 
that  he  must  return  at  the  expiry  of  his  three  years'  term — a  de- 
cision, Robert  wrote,  "at  which  I  feel  much  gratified,  as  it  is 
clear  that  he  is  as  anxious  to  have  me  back  in  England  as  I  am 
to  get  there." 

At  the  same  time,  Edward  Pease,  a  principal  partner  in  the 
Newcastle  firm,  privately  wrote  Robert  to  the  following  effect, 
urging  his  return  home :  "  I  can  assure  thee  that  the  business  at 
Newcastle,  as  well  as  thy  father's  engineering,  have  suffered  very 
much  from  thy  absence,  and,  unless  thou  soon  return,  the  former 
will  be  given  up,  as  Mr.  Longridge  is  not  able  to  give  it  that  at- 
tention it  requires ;  and  what  is  done  is  not  done  with  credit  to 
the  house."  The  idea  of  the  manufactory  being  given  up,  which 
Robert  had  labored  so  hard  to  establish  before  leaving  England, 
was  painful  to  him  in  the  extreme,  and  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Illing- 
worth,  strongly  urging  that  arrangements  should  be  made  for  en- 
abling him  to  leave  without  delay.  In  the  mean  time  he  was 
laid  prostrate  by  another  violent  attack  of  aguish  fever;  and 
when  able  to  write,  in  June,  1827,  he  expressed  himself  as  "  com- 
pletely wearied  and  worn  down  with  vexation." 

At  length,  when  he  was  sufficiently  recovered  from  his  attack 
and  able  to  travel,  he  set  out  on  his  voyage  homeward  in  the  be- 
ginning of  August.  At  Mompox,  on  his  way  down  the  River 
Magdalena,  he  met  Mr.  Bodmer,  his  successor,  with  a  fresh  party 

know  that  he  must  have  suffered  severely  from  my  absence,  but  that  having  been  ex- 
tended so  far  beyond  the  period  he  was  led  to  expect,  may  have  induced  him  to  cur- 
tail his  plans,  which,  had  they  been  accomplished,  as  they  would  have  been  by  my  as- 
sistance, would  have  placed  us  both  in  a  situation  far  superior  to  any  thing  that  I  can 
hope  for  as  the  sen-ant  of  an  association  however  wealthy  and  liberal.  What  I  might 
do  in  England  is  perhaps  known  to  myself  only ;  it  is  difficult,  therefore,  for  the  as- 
sociation to  calculate  upon  rewarding  me  to  the  full  extent  of  my  prospects  at  home. 
My  prosperity  is  involved  in  that  of  my  father,  whose  property  was  sacrificed  in  lay- 
ing the  foundations  of  an  establishment  for  me ;  his  capital  being  invested  in  a  con- 
cern which  requires  the  greatest  attention,  and  which,  with  our  personal  superintend- 
ence, could  not  fail  to  secure  that  independence  which  forms  so  principally  the  object 
of  all  our  toil" 


308  VOYAGE  TO  NEW  YORK.  [PART II. 

of  miners  from  England,  on  their  way  up  the  country  to  the  quar- 
ters which  he  had  just  quitted.  Next  day,  six  hours  after  leav- 
ing Mompox,  a  steam-boat  was  met  ascending  the  river,  with  Bol- 
ivar the  Liberator  on  board,  on  his  way  to  St.  Bogota ;  and  it  was 
a  mortification  to  our  engineer  that  he  had  only  a  passing  sight 
of  that  distinguished  person.  It  was  his  intention,  on  leaving 
Mariquita,  to  visit  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  on  his  way  home,  for 
the  purpose  of  inquiring  into  the  practicability  of  cutting  a  canal 
to  unite  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific — a  project  which  then  formed 
the  subject  of  considerable  public  discussion ;  but  Mr.  Bodmer 
having  informed  him  at  Mompox  that  such  a  visit  would  be  in- 
consistent with  the  statements  made  to  the  London  Board  that 
his  presence  was  so  anxiously  desired  at  home,  he  determined  to 
embrace  the  first  opportunity  of  proceeding  to  New  York. 

Arrived  at  the  port  of  Cartagena,  he  found  himself  under  the 
necessity  of  waiting  some  time  for  a  ship.  The  delay  was  very 
irksome  to  him,  the  more  so  as  the  place  was  then  desolated  by 
the  ravages  of  the  yellow  fever.  While  sitting  one  day  in  the 
large,  bare,  comfortless  public  room  of  the  miserable  hotel  at 
which  he  put  up,  he  observed  two  strangers,  whom  he  at  once 
perceived  to  be  English.  One  of  the  strangers  was  a  tall,  gaunt 
man,  shrunken  and  hollow-looking,  shabbily  dressed,  and  appa- 
rently poverty-stricken.  On  making  inquiry,  he  found  it  was 
Trevithick,  the  builder  of  the  first  railroad  locomotive !  He  was 
returning  home  from  the  gold  mines  of  Peru  penniless.  Robert 
Stephenson  lent  him  £50  to  enable  him  to  reach  England ;  and 
though  he  was  afterward  heard  of  as  an  inventor  there,  he  had 
no  farther  part  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  locomotive. 

But  Trevithick's  misadventures  on  this  occasion  had  not  yet 
ended,  for  before  he  reached  New  York  he  was  wrecked,  and 
Robert  Stephenson  with  him.  The  following  is  the  account  of 
the  voyage,  "  big  with  adventures,"  as  given  by  the  latter  in  a 
letter  to  his  friend  Illingworth : 

"  At  first  we  had  very  little  foul  weather,  and,  indeed,  were  for 
several  days  becalmed  among  the  islands,  which  was  so  far  fortu- 
nate, for  a  few  degrees  farther  north  the  most  tremendous  gales 
were  blowing,  and  they  appear  (from  our  future  information)  to 
have  wrecked  every  vessel  exposed  to  their  violence.  We  had  two 
examples  of  the  effects  of  the  hurricane ;  for,  as  we  sailed  north,  we 


CHAP.  XII.]  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND.  309 

took  on  board  the  remains  of  two  crews  found  floating  about  on 
dismantled  hulls.  The  one  had  been  nine  days  without  food  of  any 
kind  except  the  carcasses  of  two  of  their  companions  who  had  died 
a  day  or  two  previously  from  fatigue  and  hunger.  The  other  crew 
had  been  driven  about  for  six  days,  and  were  not  so  dejected,  but 
reduced  to  such  a  weak  state  that  they  were  obliged  to  be  drawn 
on  board  our  vessel  by  ropes.  A  brig  bound  for  Havana  took  part 
of  the  men,  and  we  took  the  remainder.  To  attempt  any  descrip- 
tion of  my  feelings  on  witnessing  such  scenes  would  be  in  vain. 
You  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that  I  felt  somewhat  uneasy  at 
the  thought  that  we  were  so  far  from  England,  and  that  I  also 
might  possibly  suffer  similar  shipwreck;  but  I  consoled  myself  with 
the  hope  that  fate  would  be  more  kind  to  us.  It  was  not  so  much 
so,  however,  as  I  had  flattered  myself;  for  on  voyaging  toward 
New  York,  after  we  had  made  the  land,  we  ran  aground  about  mid- 
night. The  vessel  soon  filled  with  water,  and,  being  surrounded  by 
the  breaking  surf,  the  ship  shortly  split  up,  and  before  morning  our 
situation  became  perilous.  Masts  and  all  were  cut  away  to  prevent 
the  hull  rocking,  but  all  we  could  do  was  of  no  avail.  About  eight 
o'clock  on  the  following  morning,  after  a  most  miserable  night,  we 
were  taken  off  the  wreck,  and  were  so  fortunate  as  to  reach  the 
shore.  I  saved  my  minerals,  but  Empson  lost  part  of  his  botanical 
collection.  Upon  the  whole,  we  got  off"  well ;  and,  had  I  not  been 
on  the  American  side  of  the  Atlantic,  I '  guess'  I  would  not  have 
gone  to  sea  again." 

After  a  short  tour  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  Robert 
Stephenson  and  liis  friend  took  ship  for  Liverpool,  where  they 
arrived  at  the  end  of  November,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  New- 
castle. The  factory,  we  have  seen,  was  by  no  means  in  a  pros- 
perous state.  During  the  time  Eobert  had  been  in  America  it 
had  been  carried  on  at  a  considerable  loss ;  and  Edward  Pease, 
very  much  disheartened,  wished  to  retire  from  it,  but  George  Ste- 
phenson being  unable  to  raise  the  requisite  money  to  buy  him 
out,  the  establishment  was  of  necessity  carried  on  by  its  then 
partners  until  the  locomotive  could  be  established  in  public  esti- 
mation as  a  practicable  and  economical  working  power.  Robert 
Stephenson  immediately  instituted  a  rigid  inquiry  into  the  work- 
ing of  the  concern,  unraveled  the  accounts,  which  had  been  al- 
lowed to  fall  into  confusion  during  his  father's  absence  at  Liver- 
pool, and  very  shortly  succeeded  in  placing  the  affairs  of  the  fac- 


310  FIXED  ENGINES  versus  LOCOMOTIVES. 

tory  in  a  more  healthy  condition.  In  all  this  he  had  the  hearty 
support  of  his  father,  as  well  as  of  the  other  partners. 

The  works  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway  were  now 
approaching  completion.  But,  strange  to  say,  the  directors  had 
not  yet  decided  as  to  the  tractive  power  to  be  employed  in  work- 
ing the  line  when  opened  for  traffic.  The  differences  of  opinion 
among  them  were  so  great  as  apparently  to  be. irreconcilable.  It 
was  necessary,  however,  that  they  should  come  to  some  decision 
without  farther  loss  of  time,  and  many  board  meetings  were  ac- 
cordingly held  to  discuss  the  subject.  The  old-fashioned  and 
well-tried  system  of  horse-haulage  was  not  without  its  advocates ; 
but,  looking  at  the  large  amount  of  traffic  which  there  was  to  be 
conveyed,  and  at  the  probable  delay  in  the  transit  from  station 
to  station  if  this  method  were  adopted,  the  directors,  after  a  visit 
made  by  them  to  the  Northumberland  and  Durham  railways  in 
1828,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  employment  of  horse-pow- 
er was  inadmissible. 

Fixed  engines  had  many  advocates ;  the  locomotive  very  few : 
it  stood  as  yet  almost  in  a  minority  of  one — George  Stephenson. 
The  prejudice  against  the  employment  of  the  latter  power  had 
even  increased  since  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Bill  under- 
went its  first  ordeal  in  the  House  of  Commons.  In  proof  of  this, 
it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  Newcastle  and  Carlisle  Railway 
Act  was  conceded  in  1829  on  the  express  condition  that  it  should 
not  be  worked  by  locomotives,  but  by  horses  only. 

Grave  doubts  still  existed  as  to  the  practicability  of  working  a 
large  traffic  by  means  of  traveling  engines.  The  most  celebrated 
engineers  offered  no  opinion  on  the  subject.  They  did  not  believe 
in  the  locomotive,  and  would  scarcely  take  the  trouble  to  examine 
it.  The  ridicule  with  which  George  Stephenson  had  been  assail- 
ed by  the  barristers  before  the  Parliamentary  Committee  had  not 
been  altogether  distasteful  to  them.  Perhaps  they  did  not  relish 
the  idea  of  a  man  who  had  picked  up  his  experience  in  Newcas- 
tle coal-pits  appearing  in  the  capacity  of  a  leading  engineer  be- 
fore Parliament,  and  attempting  to  establish  a  new  system  of  in- 
ternal communication  in  the  country. 

The  directors  'could  not  disregard  the  adverse  and  conflicting 
views  of  the  professional  men  whom  they  consulted.  But  Ste- 
phenson had  so  repeatedly  and  earnestly  urged  upon  them  the 


CHAP.  XII.]    SCHEMES  FOR  EFFECTING  LOCOMOTION.  3H 

propriety  of  making  a  trial  of  the  locomotive  before  coming  to 
any  decision  against  it,  that  they  at  length. authorized  him  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  construction  of  one  of  his  engines  by  way  of  experi- 
ment. In  their  report  to  the  proprietors  at  their  annual  meeting 
on  the  27th  of  March,  1828,  they  state  that  they  had,  after  due 
consideration,  authorized  the  engineer  "  to  prepare  a  locomotive 
engine,  which,  from  the  nature  of  its  construction  and  from  the 
experiments  already  made,  he  is  of  opinion  will  be  effective  for 
the  purposes  of  the  company,  without  proving  an  annoyance  to 
the  public."  The  locomotive  thus  ordered  was  placed  upon  the 
line  in  1829,  and  was  found  of  great  service  in  drawing  the  wag- 
ons full  of  marl  from  the  two  great  cuttings. 

In  the  mean  time  the  discussion  proceeded  as  to  the  kind  of 
power  to  be  permanently  employed  for  the  working  of  the  rail- 
way. The  directors  were  inundated  with  schemes  of  all  sorts  for 
facilitating  locomotion.  The  projectors  of  England,  France,  and 
America  seemed  to  be  let  loose  upon  them.  There  were  plans 
for  working  the  wagons  along  the  line  by  water-power.  Some 
proposed  hydrogen,  and  others  carbonic  acid  gas.  Atmospheric 
pressure  had  its  eager  advocates.  And  various  kinds  of  fixed 
and  locomotive  steam-power  were  suggested.  Thomas  Gray 
urged  his  plan  of  a  greased  road  with  cog-rails ;  and  Messrs.  Yig- 
nolles  and  Ericsson  recommended  the  adoption  of  a  central  fric- 
tion-rail, against  which  two  horizontal  rollers  under  the  locomo- 
tive, pressing  upon  the  sides  of  this  rail,  were  to  afford  the  means 
of  ascending  the  inch'ned  planes. 

The  directors  felt  themselves  quite  unable  to  choose  from  amid 
this  multitude  of  projects.  Their  engineer  expressed  himself  as 
decidedly  as  heretofore  in  favor  of  smooth  rails  and  locomotive 
engines,  which,  he  was  confident,  would  be  found  the  most  eco- 
nomical and  by  far  the  most  convenient  moving  power  that  could 
be  employed.  The  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway  being  now 
at  work,  another  deputation  went  down  personally  to  inspect  the 
fixed  and  locomotive  engines  on  that  line,  as  well  as  at  Iletton 
and  Killingworth.  They  returned  to  Liverpool  with  much  infor- 
mation ;  but  their  testimony  as  to  the  relative  merits  of  the  two 
kinds  of  engines  was  so  contradictory,  that  the  directors  were  as 
far  from  a  decision  as  ever. 

They  then  resolved  to  call  to  their  aid  two  professional  engi- 


312  WALKER  AND  RASTRICK'S  REPORT.  [PART  II. 

neers  of  high  standing,  who  should  visit  the  Darlington  and  New- 
castle railways,  carefully  examine  both  modes  of  working — the 
fixed  and  the  locomotive — and  report  to  them  fully  on  the  sub- 
ject. The  gentlemen  selected  were  Mr.  Walker,  of  Limehouse, 
and  Mr.  Rastrick,  of  Stourbridge.  After  carefully  examining 
the  working  of  the  Northern  lines,  they  made  their  report  to  the 
directors  in  the  spring  of  1829.  They  concurred  in  the  opinion 
that  the  cost  of  an  establishment  of  fixed  engines  would  be  some- 
what greater  than  that  of  locomotives  to  do  the  same  work,  but 
they  thought  the  annual  charge  would  be  less  if  the  former  were 
adopted.  They  calculated  that  the  cost  of  moving  a  ton  of  goods 
thirty  miles  by  fixed  engines  would  be  6'40^.,and  by  locomotives, 
8-36<Q?.,  assuming  a  profitable  traffic  to  be  obtained  both  ways.  At 
the  same  time,  it  was  admitted  that  there  appeared  more  grounds 
for  expecting  improvements  in  the  construction  and  working  of 
locomotives  than  of  stationary  engines.  "  On  the  whole,  how- 
ever, and  looking  especially  at  the  computed  annual  charge  of 
working  the  road  on  the  two  systems  on  a  large  scale,  Messrs. 
Walker  and  Rastrick  were  of  opinion  that  fixed  engines  were 
preferable,  and  accordingly  recommended  their  adoption  to  the 
directors."*  And  in  order  to  carry  the  system  recommended  by 
them  into  effect,  they  proposed  to  divide  the  railroad  between 
Liverpool  and  Manchester  into  nineteen  stages  of  about  a  mile 
and  a  half  each,  with  twenty-one  engines  fixed  at  the  different 
points  to  work  the  trains  forward. 

Such  was  the  result,  so  far,  of  George  Stephenson's  labors. 

*  Mr.  Booth's  Account,  p.  70-1 .  While  concurring  with  Mr.  Kastrick  in  recom- 
mending "the  stationary  reciprocating  system  as  the  best"  if  it  was  the  directors'  in- 
tention to  make  the  line  complete  at  once,  so  as  to  accommodate  the  traffic  expected 
by  them,  or  a  quantity  approaching  to  it  (i.  e.,  3750  tons  of  goods  and  passengers  from 
Liverpool  toward  Manchester,  and  3950  tons  from  Manchester  toward  Liverpool), 
Mr.  Walker  added, "but  if  any  circumstances  should  induce  the  directors  to  proceed 
by  degrees,  and  to  proportion  the  power  of  conveyance  to  the  demand,  then  we  rec- 
ommend locomotive  engines  upon  the  line  generally ;  and  two  fixed  engines  upon 
Rainhill  and  Sutton  planes,  to  draw  up  the  locomotive  engines  as  well  as  the  goods 
and  carriages ;"  and  "if  on  any  occasion  the  trade  should  get  beyond  the  supply  of 
locomotives,  the  horse  might  form  a  temporary  substitute. "  As,  however,  it  was  the 
directors'  determination,  with  a  view  to  the  success  of  their  experiment,  to  open  the 
line  complete  for  working,  they  felt  that  it  would  be  unadvisable  to  adopt  this  partial 
experiment ;  and  it  was  still  left  for  them  to  decide  whether  they  would  adopt  or  not 
the  substantial  recommendation  of  the  reporting  engineers  in  favor  of  the  stationary- 
engine  system  for  the  complete  accommodation  of  the  expected  traffic. 


CHAP.  XII.]    STEPHENSON'S  FAITH  IN  THE  LOCOMOTIVE.       313 

The  two  best  practical  engineers  of  the  day  concurred  in  report- 
ing substantially  in  favor  of  the  employment  of  fixed  engines. 
Not  a  single  professional  man  of  eminence  could  be  found  to  co- 
incide with  the  engineer  of  the  railway  in  his  preference  for  lo- 
comotive over  fixed  engine  power.  He  had  scarcely  a  supporter, 
and  the  locomotive  system  seemed  on  the  eve  of  being  abandon- 
ed. Still  he  did  not  despair.  With  the  profession  against  him, 
and  public  opinion  against  him — for  the  most  frightful  stories 
went  abroad  respecting  the  dangers,  the  unsightliness,  and  the 
nuisance  which  the  locomotive  would  create — Stephenson  held 
to  his  purpose.  Even  in  this,  apparently  the  darkest  hour  of  the 
locomotive,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  locomotive  rail- 
roads would,  before  many  years  had  passed,  be  "  the  great  high- 
ways of  the  world." 

He  urged  his  views  upon  the  directors  in  all  ways,  in  season, 
and,  as  some  of  them  thought,  out  of  season.  He  pointed  out 
the  greater  convenience  of  locomotive  power  for  the  purposes  of 
a  public  highway,  likening  it  to  a  series  of  short  unconnected 
chains,  any  one  of  which  could  be  removed  and  another  substi- 
tuted without  interruption  to  the  traffic ;  whereas  the  fixed-en- 
gine system  might  be  regarded  in  the  light  of  a  continuous  chain 
extending  between  the  two  termini,  the  failure  of  any  link  of 
which  would  derange  the  whole.*  But  the  fixed-engine  party 
were  very  strong  at  the  board,  and,  led  by  Mr.  Cropper,  they 
urged  the  propriety  of  forthwith  adopting  the  report  of  Messrs. 
Walker  and  Eastrick.  Mr.  Sandars  and  Mr.  William  Eathbone, 
on  the  other  hand,  desired  that  a  fair  trial  should  be  given  to  the 
locomotive ;  and  they  with  reason  objected  to  the  expenditure 
of  the  large  capital  necessary  to  construct  the  proposed  engine- 
houses,  with  their  fixed  engines,  ropes,  and  machinery,  until  they 
had  tested  the  powers  of  the  locomotive  as  recommended  by  their 

*  The  arguments  used  by  Mr.  Stephenson  with  the  directors  in  favor  of  the  loco- 
motive engine  were  afterward  collected  and  published  in  1830  by  Kobert  Stephenson 
and  Joseph  Locke,  as  "  compiled  from  the  Reports  of  Mr.  George  Stephenson."  The 
pamphlet  was  entitled  ' '  Observations  on  the  Comparative  Merits  of  Locomotive  and 
Fixed  Engines. "  Robert  Stephenson,  speaking  of  the  authorship  many  years  after, 
said, "  I  believe  I  furnished  the  facts  and  the  arguments,  and  Locke  put  them  into 
shape.  Locke  was  a  very  flowery  writer,  whereas  my  style  was  rather  bald  and  un- 
attractive ;  so  he  was  the  editor  of  the  pamphlet,  which  excited  a  good  deal  of  atten- 
tion among  engineers  at  the  time." 


314  PRIZE  FOR  THE  BEST  LOCOMOTIVE.  [PART  H. 

own  engineer.  George  Stephenson  continued  to  urge  upon  them 
that  the  locomotive  was  yet  capable  of  great  improvements,  if 
proper  inducements  were  held  out  to  inventors  and  machinists 
to  make  them ;  and  he  pledged  himself  that,  if  time  were  given 
him,  he  would  construct  an  engine  that  should  satisfy  their  re- 
quirements, and  prove  itself  capable  of  working  heavy  loads 
along  the  railway  with  speed,  regularity,  and  safety.  At  length, 
influenced  by  his  persistent  earnestness  not  less  than  by  his  ar- 
guments, the  directors,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Harrison,  deter- 
mined to  offer  a  prize  of  £500  for  the  best  locomotive  engine, 
which,  on  a  certain  day,  should  be  produced  on  the  railway, 
and  perform  certain  specified  conditions  in  the  most  satisfactory 
manner.* 

The  requirements  of  the  directors  as  to  speed  were  not  excess- 
ive. All  that  they  asked  for  was  that  ten  miles  an  hour  should 
be  maintained.  Perhaps  they  had  in  mind  the  animadversions 
of  the  "  Quarterly  Reviewer"  on  the  absurdity  of  traveling  at  a 
greater  velocity,  and  also  the  remarks  published  by  Mr.  Nicholas 

*  The  conditions  were  these : 

1.  The  engine  must  effectually  consume  its  own  smoke. 

2.  The  engine,  if  of  six  tons'  weight,  must  be  able  to  draw  after  it,  day  by  day, 
twenty  tons'  weight  (including  the  tender  and  water-tank)  at  ten  miles  an  hour,  with 
a  pressure  of  steam  on  the  boiler  not  exceeding  fifty  pounds  to  the  square  inch. 

3.  The  boiler  must  have  two  safety  valves,  neither  of  which  must  be  fastened  down, 
and  one  of  them  be  completely  out  of  the  control  of  the  engine-man. 

4.  The  engine  and  boiler  must  be  supported  on  springs,  and  rest  on  six  wheels,  the 
height  of  the  whole  not  exceeding  fifteen  feet  to  the  top  of  the  chimney. 

5.  The  engine,  with  water,  must  not  weigh  more  than  six  tons  ;  but  an  engine  of 
less  weight  would  be  preferred  on  its  drawing  a  proportionate  load  behind  it ;  if  of 
only  four  and  a  half  tons,  then  it  might  be  put  on  only  four  wheels.     The  company 
to  be  at  liberty  to  test  the  boiler,  etc.,  by  a  pressure  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
to  the  square  inch. 

6.  A  mercurial  gauge  must  be  affixed  to  the  machine,  showing  the  steam  pressure 
above  forty-five  pounds  per  square  inch. 

7.  The  engine  must  be  delivered,  complete  and  ready  for  trial,  at  the  Liverpool 
end  of  the  railway,  not  later  than  the  1st  of  October,  1829. 

8.  The  price  of  the  engine  must  not  exceed  £550. 

Many  persons  of  influence  declared  the  conditions  published  by  the  directors  of  the 
railway  chimerical  in  the  extreme.  One  gentleman  of  some  eminence  in  Liverpool, 
Mr.  P.  Ewart,  who  afterward  filled  the  office  of  Government  Inspector  of  Post-office 
Steam  Packets,  declared  that  only  a  parcel  of  charlatans  would  ever  have  issued  such 
a  set  of  conditions ;  that  it  had  been  proved  to  be  impossible  to  make  a  locomotive 
engine  go  at  ten  miles  an  hour ;  but  if  it  ever  was  done,  he  would  undertake  to  eat  a 
stewed  engine-wheel  for  his  breakfast ! 


CHAP.  XII.]       DISCUSSIONS  OF  THE  STEPHENSONS.  315 

Wood,  whom  they  selected  to  be  one  of  the  judges  of  the  com- 
petition, in  conjunction  with  Mr.  Rastrick,  of  Stourbridge,  and 
Mr.  Kennedy,  of  Manchester. 

It  was  now  felt  that  the  fate  of  railways  in  a  great  measure 
depended  upon  the  issue  of  this  appeal  to  the  mechanical  genius 
of  England.  When  the  advertisement  of  the  prize  for  the  best 
locomotive  was  published,  scientific  men  began  more  particular- 
ly to  direct  their  attention  to  the  new  power  which  was  thus 
struggling  into  existence.  In  the  mean  time  public  opinion  on 
the  subject  of  railway  working  remained  suspended,  and  the  prog- 
ress of  the  undertaking  was  watched  with  intense  interest. 

During  the  progress  of  this  important  controversy  with  refer- 
ence to  the  kind  of  power  to  be  employed  in  working  the  rail- 
way, George  Stephenson  was  in  constant  communication  with  his 
son  Robert,  who  made  frequent  visits  to  Liverpool  for  the  pur- 
pose of  assisting  his  father  in  the  preparation  of  his  reports  to 
the  board  on  the  subject.  Mr.  Swanwick  remembers  the  vivid  in- 
terest of  the  evening  discussions  which  then  took  place  between 
father  and  son  as  to  the  best  mode  of  increasing  the  powers  and 
perfecting  the  mechanism  of  the  locomotive.  He  wondered  at 
their  quick  perception  and  rapid  judgment  on  each  other's  sug- 
gestions ;  at  the  mechanical  difficulties  which  they  anticipated 
and  provided  for  in  the  practical  arrangement  of  the  machine ; 
and  he  speaks  of  these  evenings  as  most  interesting  displays  of 
two  actively  ingenious  and  able  minds  stimulating  each  other  to 
feats  of  mechanical  invention,  by  which  it  was  ordained  that  the 
locomotive  engine  should  become  what  it  now  is.  These  discus- 
sions became  more  frequent,  and  still  more  interesting,  after  the 
public  prize  had  been  offered  for  the  best  locomotive  by  the  di- 
rectors of  the  railway,  and  the  working  plans  of  the  engine  which 
they  proposed  to  construct  had  to  be  settled. 

One  of  the  most  important  considerations  in  the  new  engine 
was  the  arrangement  of  the  boiler  and  the  extension  of  its  heat- 
ing surface  to  enable  steam  enough  to  be  raised  rapidly  and  con- 
tinuously for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  high  rates  of  speed — 
the  effect  of  high-pressure  engines  being  ascertained  to  depend 
mainly  upon  the  quantity  of  steam  which  the  boiler  can  generate, 
and  upon  its  degree  of  elasticity  when  produced.  The  quantity 
of  steam  so  generated,  it  will  be  obvious,  must  chiefly  depend 


316  INCREASE  OF  HEATING  SURFACE.  [PART  II. 

upon  the  quantity  of  fuel  consumed  in  the  furnace,  and,  by  neces- 
sary consequence,  upon  the  high  rate  of  temperature  maintained 
there. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  Stephenson's  first  Killingworth 
engines  he  invited  and  applied  the  ingenious  method  of  stimula- 
ting combustion  in  the  furnace  by  throwing  the  waste  steam  into 
the  chimney  after  performing  its  office  in  the  cylinders,  thereby 
accelerating  the  ascent  of  the  current  of  air,  greatly  increasing 
the  draught,  and  consequently  the  temperature  of  the  fire.  This 
plan  was  adopted  by  him,  as  we  have  seen,  as  early  as  1815. 
and  it  was  so  successful  that  he  himself  attributed  to  it  the 
greater  economy  of  the  locomotive  as  compared  with  horse- 
power. Hence  the  continuance  of  its  use  upon  the  Killingworth 
Railway. 

Though  the  adoption  of  the  steam-blast  greatly  quickened  com- 
bustion and  contributed  to  the  rapid  production  of  high-pressure 
steam,  the  limited  amount  of  heating  surface  presented  to  the  fire 
was  still  felt  to  be  an  obstacle  to  the  complete  success  of  the  lo- 
comotive engine.  Mr.  Stephenson  endeavored  to  overcome  this 
by  lengthening  the  boilers  and  increasing  the  surface  presented 
by  the  flue-tubes.  The  "  Lancashire  Witch,"  which  he  built  for 
the  Bolton  and  Leigh  Railway,  and  used  in  forming  the  Liver- 
pool and  Manchester  Railway  embankments,  was  constructed  with 
a  double  tube,  each  of  which  contained  a  fire,  and  passed  longi- 
tudinally through  the  boiler.  But  this  arrangement  necessarily 
led  to  a  considerable  increase  in  the  weight  of  those  engines, 
which  amounted  to  about  twelve  tons  each ;  and  as  six  tons  was 
the  limit  allowed  for  engines  admitted  to  the  Liverpool  competi- 
tion, it  was  clear  that  the  time  was  come  when  the  Killingworth 
engine  must  undergo  a  farther  important  modification. 

For  many  years  previous  to  this  period,  ingenious  mechanics 
had  been  engaged  in  attempting  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  best 
and  most  economical  boiler  for  the  production  of  high-pressure 
steam. 

The  use  of  tubes  in  boilers  for  increasing  the  heating  surface 
had  long  been  known.  As  early  as  1T80,  Matthew  Boulton  em- 
ployed copper  tubes  longitudinally  in  the  boiler  of  the  Wheal 
Busy  engine  in  Cornwall — the  fire  passing  through  the  tubes — 
and  it  was  found  that  the  production  of  steam  was  thereby  con- 


CHAP.  XII.]  TUBULAR  BOILERS.  317 

siderably  increased.*  The  use  of  tubular  boilers  afterward  be- 
came common  in  Cornwall.  In  1803,  Woolf,  the  Cornish  engi- 
neer, patented  a  boiler  with  tubes,  with  the  same  object  of  in- 
creasing the  heating  surface.  The  water  was  inside  the  tubes, 
and  the  fire  of  the  boiler  outside.  Similar  expedients  were  pro- 
posed by  other  inventors.  In  1815  Trevi thick  invented  his  light 
high-pressure  boiler  for  portable  purposes,  in  which,  to  "  expose  a 
large  surface  to  the  fire,"  he  constructed  the  boiler  of  a  number 
of  small  perpendicular  tubes  "  opening  into  a  common  reservoir 
at  the  top."  In  1823  W.  H.  James  contrived  a  boiler  composed 
of  a  series  of  annular  wrought-iron  tubes,  placed  side  by  side  and 
bolted  together,  so  as  to  form  by  their  union  a  long  cylindrical 
boiler,  in  the  centre  of  which,  at  the  end,  the  fireplace  was  situ- 
ated. The  fire  played  round  the  tubes,  which  contained  the 
water.  In  1826  James  Seville  took  out  a  patent  for  a  boiler 
with  vertical  tubes  surrounded  by  the  water,  through  which  the 
heated  air  of  the  furnace  passed,  explaining  also  in  his  specifica- 
tion that  the  tubes  might  be  horizontal  or  inclined,  according  to 
circumstances.  Mr.  Goldsworthy  Gurney,  the  persevering  adapt- 
or of  steam-carriages  to  traveling  on  common  roads,  applied  the 
tubular  principle  in  the  boiler  of  his  engine,  in  which  the  steam 
was  generated  within  the  tubes;  while  the  boiler  invented  by 
Messrs.  Summers  and  Ogle  for  their  turnpike-road  steam-carriage 
consisted  of  a  series  of  tubes  placed  vertically  over  the  furnace, 
through  which  the  heated  air  passed  before  reaching  the  chimney. 
About  the  same  time  George  Stephenson  was  trying  the  effect 
of  introducing  small  tubes  in  the  boilers  of  his  locomotives,  with 
the  object  of  increasing  their  evaporative  power.  Thus,  in  1829, 
he  sent  to  France  two  engines  constructed  at  the  Newcastle  works 
for  the  Lyons  and  St.  Etienne  Kail  way,  in  the  boilers  of  which 
tubes  were  placed  containing  water.  The  heating  surface  was 
thus  considerably  increased ;  but  the  expedient  was  not  success- 
ful, for  the  tubes,  becoming  furred  with  deposit,  shortly,  burned 
out  and  were  removed.  It  was  then  that  M.  Seguin,  the  engineer 

*  Some  correspondence  took  place  between  Bonlton  and  Watt  on  the  subject,  when 
the  latter  was  scheming  the  application  of  the  steam-engine  to  locomotive  purposes. 
In  a  letter  to  Boulton,  dated  the  27th  of  August,  1784,  Watt  said,  "  Perhaps  some 
means  may  be  hit  upon  to  make  the  boiler  cylindrical  with  a  number  of  tubes  passing 
through,  like  the  organ-pipe  condenser,  whereby  it  might  be  thinner  and  lighter ;  but," 
he  added,  "  I  fear  this  would  be  too  subject  to  accidents." 


318  MULTITUBULAR  BOILERS.  [PART  II. 

of  the  railway,  pursuing  the  same  idea,  is  said  to  have  adopted 
his  plan  of  employing  horizontal  tubes  through  which  the  heated 
air  passed  in  streamlets,  and  for  which  he  took  out  a  French 
patent. 

In  the  mean  time  Mr.  Henry  Booth,  secretary  to  the  Liverpool 
and  Manchester  Kailway,  whose  attention  had  been  directed  to 
the  subject  on  the  prize  being  offered  for  the  best  locomotive  to 
work  that  line,  proposed  the  same  method,  which,  unknown  to 
him,  Matthew  Boulton  had  employed,  but  not  patented,  in  1780, 
and  James  Neville  had  patented,  but  not  employed,  in  1826 ;  and 
it  was  carried  into  effect  by  Robert  Stephenson  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  "  Rocket,"  which  won  the  prize  at  Rainhill  in  October, 
1829.  The  following  is  Mr.  Booth's  account  in  a  letter  to  the 
author : 

"  I  was  in  almost  daily  communication  with  Mr.  Stephenson  at 
the  time,  and  I  was  not  aware  that  he  had  any  intention  of  compet- 
ing for  the  prize  till  I  communicated  to  him  my  scheme  of  a  multi- 
tubular  boiler.  This  new  plan  of  boiler  comprised  the  introduction 
of  numerous  small  tubes,  two  or  three  inches  in  diameter,  and  less 
than  one  eighth  of  an  inch  thick,  through  which  to  carry  the  fire, 
instead  of -a  single  tube  or  flue  eighteen  inches  in  diameter,  and 
about  half  an  inch  thick,  by  which  plan  we  not  only  obtain  a  very 
•much  larger  heating  surface,  but  the  heating  surface  is  much  more 
effective,  as  there  intervenes  between  the  fire  and  the  water  only  a 
thin  sheet  of  copper  or  brass,  not  an  eighth  of  an  inch  thick,  instead 
of  a  plate  of  iron  of  four  times  the  substance,  as  well  as  an  inferior 
conductor  of  heat. 

"  When  the  conditions  of  trial  were  published,  I  communicated 
my  multitubular  plan  to  Mr.  Stephenson,  and  proposed  to  him  that 
we  should  jointly  construct  an  engine  and  compete  for  the  prize. 
Mr.  Stephenson  approved  the  plan,  and  agreed  to  my  proposal  He 
settled  the  mode  in  which  the  fire-box  and  tubes  were  to  be  mutu- 
ally arranged  and  connected,  and  the  engine  was  constructed  at  the 
works  of  Messrs.  Robert  Stephenson  and  Co.,Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

"  I  am  ignorant  of  M.  Seguin's  proceedings  in  France,  but  I  claim 
to  be  the  inventor  in  England,  ^and  feel  warranted  in  stating,  with- 
out reservation,  that  until  I  named  my  plan  to  Mr.  Stephenson,  with 
a  view  to  compete  for  the  prize  at  Rainhill,  it  had  not  been  tried, 
and  was  not  known  in  this  country." 

From  the  well-known  high  character  of  Mr.  Booth,  we  believe 


CHAP.  XII.]          CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  "ROCKET."  319 

his  statement  to  be  made  in  perfect  good  faith,  and  that  he  was 
as  much  in  ignorance  of  the  plan  patented  by  Neville  as  he  was 
of  that  of  Seguin.  As  we  have  seen,  from  the  many  plans  of 
tubular  boilers  invented  during  the  preceding  thirty  years,  the 
idea  was  not  by  any  means  new ;  and  we  believe  Mr.  Booth  to 
be  entitled  to  the  merit  of  inventing  the  method  by  which  the 
multitubular  principle  was  so  effectually  applied  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  famous  "  Rocket"  engine. 

The  principal  circumstances  connected  with  the  construction 
of  the  "  Rocket,"  as  described  by  Robert  Stephenson  to  the  author, 
may  be  briefly  stated.  The  tubular  principle  was  adopted  in  a 
more  complete  manner  than  had  yet  been  attempted.  Twenty- 
five  copper  tubes,  each  three  inches  in  diameter,  extended  from 
one  end  of  the  boiler  to  the  other,  the  heated  air  passing  through 
them  on  its  way  to  the  chimney ;  and  the  tubes  being  surround- 
ed by  the  water  of  the  boiler,  it  will  be  obvious  that  a  large  ex- 
tension of  the  heating  surface  was  thus  effectually  secured.  The 
principal  difficulty  was  in  fitting  the  copper  tubes  in  the  boiler- 
ends  so  as  to  prevent  leakage.  They  were  manufactured  by  a 
Newcastle  coppersmith,  and  soldered  to  brass  screws  which  were 
screwed  into  the  boiler-ends,  standing  out  in  great  knobs.  "When 
the  tubes  were  thus  fitted,  and  the  boiler  was  filled  with  water, 
hydraulic  pressure  was  applied ;  but  the  water  squirted  out  at 
every  joint,  and  the  factory  floor  was  soon  flooded.  Robert  went 
home  in  despair;  and  in  the  first  moment  of  grief  he  wrote  to 
his  father  that  the  whole  thing  was  a  failure.  By  return  of  post 
came  a  letter  from  his  father,  telling  him  that  despair  was  not  to 
be  thought  of — that  he  must  "  try  again ;"  and  he  suggested  a 
mode  of  overcoming  the  difficulty,  which  his  son  had  already  an- 
ticipated and  proceeded  to  adopt.  It  was,  to  bore  clean  holes  in 
the  boiler-ends,  fit  in  the  smooth  copper  tubes  as  tightly  as  pos- 
sible, solder  up,  and  then  raise  the  steam.  This  plan  succeeded 
perfectly,  the  expansion  of  the  copper  tubes  completely  filling  up 
all  interstices,  and  producing  a  perfectly  water-tight  boiler,  capa- 
ble of  withstanding  extreme  external  pressure. 

The  mode  of  employing  the  steam-blast  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
creasing the  draught  in  the  chimney  was  also  the  subject  of  nu- 
merous experiments.  When  the  engine  was  first  tried,  it  was 
thought  that  the  blast  in  the  chimney  was  not  sufficiently  strong 


THE  STEAM-BLAST.  [PAET  II. 


for  the  purpose  of  keeping  up  the  intensity  of  the  fire  in  the  fur- 
nace, so  as  to  produce  high-pressure  steam  with  the  required  ve- 
locity. The  expedient  was  therefore  adopted  of  hammering  the 
copper  tubes  at  the  point  at  which  they  entered  the  chimney, 
whereby  the  blast  was  considerably  sharpened ;  and  on  a  farther 
trial  it  was  found  that  the  draught  was  increased  to  such  an  ex- 
tent as  to  enable  abundance  of  steam  to  be  raised.  The  rationale 
of  the  blast  may  be  simply  explained  by  referring  to  the  effect  of 
contracting  the  pipe  of  a  water-hose,  by  which  the  force  of  the 
jet  of  water  is  proportionately  increased.  Widen  the  nozzle  of 
the  pipe,  and  the  jet  is  in  like  manner  diminished.  So  is  it  with 
the  steam-blast  in  the  chimney  of  the  locomotive. 

Doubts  were,  however,  expressed  whether  the  greater  draught 
obtained  by  the  contraction  of  the  blast-pipe  was  not  counterbal- 
anced in  some  degree  by  the  negative  pressure  upon  the  piston. 
Hence  a  series  of  experiments  was  made  with  pipes  of  different 
diameters,  and  their  efficiency  was  tested  by  the  amount  of  vacu- 
um that  was  produced  in  the  smoke-box.  The  degree  of  rarefac- 
tion was  determined  by  a  glass  tube  fixed  to  the  bottom  of  the 
smoke-box,  and  descending  into  a  bucket  of  water,  the  tube  be- 
ing open  at  both  ends.  As  the  rarefaction  took  place,  the  water 
would  of  course  rise  in  the  tube,  and  the  height  to  which  it  rose 
above  the  surface  of  the  water  in  the  bucket  was  made  the  meas- 
ure of  the  amount  of  rarefaction.  These  experiments  proved 
that  a  considerable  increase  of  draught  was  obtained  by  the  con- 
traction of  the  orifice ;  accordingly,  the  two  blast-pipes  opening 
from  the  cylinders  into  either  side  of  the  "  Rocket"  chimney,  and 
turned?  up  within  it,  were  contracted  slightly  below  the  area  of 
the  steam-ports ;  and  before  the  engine  left  the  factory,  the  wa- 
ter rose  in  the  glass  tube  three  inches  above  the  water  in  the 
bucket. 

The  other  arrangements  of  the  "  Rocket"  were  briefly  these : 
the  boiler  was  cylindrical,  with  flat  ends,  six  feet  in  length,  and 
three  feet  four  inches  in  diameter.  The  upper  half  of  the  boiler 
was  used  as  a  reservoir  for  the  steam,  the  lower  half  being  filled 
with  water.  Through  the  lower  part  the  copper  tubes  extended, 
being  open  to  the  fire-box  at  one  end,  and  to  the  chimney  at  the 
other.  The  fire-box,  or  furnace,  two  feet  wide  and  three  feet 
high,  was  attached  immediately  behind  the  boiler,  and  was  also 


CUAP.  XII.] 


THE  "ROCKET"  FINISHED. 


321 


surrounded  with  water.  The  cylinders  of  the  engine  were  placed 
on  each  side  of  the  boiler,  in  an  oblique  position,  one  end  being 
nearly  level  with  the  top  of  the  boiler  at  its  after  end,  and  the 
other  pointing  toward  the  centre  of  the  foremost  or  driving  pair 
of  wheels,  with  which  the  connection  was  directly  made  from  the 
piston-rod  to  a  pin  on  the  outside  of  the  wheel.  The  engine,  to- 
gether with  its  load  of  water,  weighed  only  four  tons  and  a  quar- 
ter ;  and  it  was  supported  on  four  wheels,  not  coupled.  The  ten- 
der was  four-wheeled,  and  similar  in  shape  to  a  wagon — the  fore- 
most part  holding  the  fuel,  and  the  hind  part  a  water-cask. 

When  the  "  Rocket"  was  finished,  it  was  placed  upon  the  Kil- 
lingworth  Railway  for  the  purpose  of  experiment.  The  new 
boiler  arrangement  was  found  perfectly  successful.  The  steam 


was  raised  rapidly  and  continuously,  and  in  a  quantity  which 
then  appeared  marvelous.  The  same  evening  Robert  dispatched 
a  letter  to  his  f atlier  at  Liverpool,  informing  him,  to  his  great  joy, 
that  the  "  Rocket"  was  "  all  right,"  and  would  be  in  complete 
working  trim  by  the  day  of  trial.  The  engine  was  shortly  after 
sent  by  wagon  to  Carlisle,  and  thence  shipped  for  Liverpool. 

X 


322  THE  EVE  OF  THE  CONTEST.  [PART  II. 

The  time  so  much  longed  for  by  George  Stephenson  had 
now  arrived,  when  the  merits  of  the  passenger  locomotive  were 
about  to  be  put  to  the  test.  He  had  fought  the  battle  for  it  un- 
til now  almost  single-handed.  Engrossed  by  his  daily  labors  and 
anxieties,  and  harassed  by  difficulties  and  discouragements  which 
*  would  have  crushed  the  spirit  of  a  less  resolute  man,  he  had  held 
firmly  to  his  purpose  through  good  and  through  evil  report.  The 
hostility  which  he  experienced  from  some  of  the  directors  opposed 
to  the  adoption  of  the  locomotive  was  the  circumstance  that 
caused  him  the  greatest  grief  of  all ;  for  where  he  had  looked  for 
encouragement,  he  found  only  carping  and  opposition.  But  his 
pluck  never  failed  him ;  and  now  the  "  Kocket"  was  upon  the 
ground  to  prove,  to  use  his  own  words, "  whether  he  was  a  man 
of  his  word  or  not." 

Great  interest  was  felt  at  Liverpool,  as  well  as  throughout  the 
country,  in  the  approaching  competition.  Engineers,  scientific 
men,  and  mechanics  arrived  from  all  quarters  to  witness  the  nov- 
el display  of  mechanical  ingenuity  on  which  such  great  results 
depended.  The  public  generally  were  no  indifferent  spectators 
either.  The  populations  of  Liverpool,  Manchester,  and  the  ad- 
jacent towns  felt  that  the  successful  issue  of  the  experiment 
would  confer  upon  them  individual  benefits  and  local  advantages 
almost  incalculable,  while  populations  at  a  distance  waited  for 
the  result  with  almost  equal  interest. 

On  the  day  appointed  for  the  great  competition  of  locomotives 
at  Rainhill  the  following  engines  were  entered  for  the  prize : 

1.  Messrs.  Braithwaite  and  Ericsson's*  "  Novelty." 

2.  Mr.  Timothy  Hackworth's  "  Sanspareil." 

3.  Messrs.  R  Stephenson  and  Co.'s  "Kocket." 

4.  Mr.  Burstall's  "  Perseverance." 

Another  engine  was  entered  by  Mr.  Brandreth,  of  Liverpool — 
the  "  Cycloped,"  weighing  three  tons,  worked  by  a  horse  *in  a 
frame,  but  it  could  not  be  admitted  to  the  competition.  The 
above  were  the  only  four  exhibited,  out  of  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  engines  constructed  in  different  parts  of  the  country  in  an- 

*  The  inventor  of  this  engine  was  a  Swede,  who  afterward  proceeded  to  the  United 
States,  and  there  achieved  considerable  distinction  as  an  engineer.  His  caloric  en- 
gine has  so  far  proved  a  failure,  but  his  iron  cupola  vessel,  the  "Monitor,"  must  be 
admitted  to  have  been  a  remarkable  success  in  its  way. 


CHAP. XII.]  THE  COMPETITION  AT  RAINUILL.  323 

ticipation  of  this  contest,  many  of  which  could  not  be  satisfacto- 
rily completed  by  the  day  of  trial. 

The  ground  on  which  the  engines  were  to  be  tried  was  a  level 
piece  of  railroad,  about  two  miles  in  length.  Each  was  required 
to  make  twenty  trips,  or  equal  to  a  journey  of  seventy  miles,  in 
the  course  of  the  day,  and  the  average  rate  of  traveling  was  to  be 
not  under  ten  miles  an  hour.  It  was  determined  that,  to  avoid 
confusion,  each  engine  should  be  tried  separately,  and  on  differ- 
ent days. 

The  day  fixed  for  the  competition  was  the  1st  of  October,  but, 
to  allow  sufficient  time  to  get  the  locomotives  into  good  working 
order,  the  directors  extended  it  to  the  6th.  On  the  morning  of 
the  6th  the  ground  at  Rainhill  presented  a  lively  appearance,  and 
there  was  as  much  excitement  as  if  the  St.  Leger  were  about  to 
be  run.  Many  thousand  spectators  looked  on,  among  whom 
were  some  of  the  first  engineers  and  mechanicians  of  the  day. 
A  stand  was  provided  for  the  ladies ;  the  "  beauty  and  fashion" 
of  the  neighborhood  were  present,  and  the  side  of  the  railroad 
was  lined  with  carriages  of  all  descriptions. 

It  was  quite  characteristic  of  the  Stephensons  that,  although 
their  engine  did  not  stand  first  on  the  list  for  trial,  it  was  the  first 
that  was  ready,  and  it  was  accordingly  ordered  out  by  the  judges 
for  an  experimental  trip.  Yet  the  "  Rocket"  was  by  no  means 
the  "  favorite"  with  either  the  judges  or  the  spectators.  Nicho- 
las Wood  has  since  stated  that  the  majority  of  the  judges  were 
strongly  predisposed  in  favor  of  the  "  Novelty,"  and  that  "  nine 
tentlis,  if  not  ten  tenths,  of  the  persons  present  were  against  the 
'  Rocket'  because  of  its  appearance."*  Nearly  every  person  fa- 
vored some  other  engine,  so  that  there  was  nothing  for  the 
"Rocket"  but  the  practical  test.  The  first  trip  made  by  it  was 
quite  successful.  It  ran  about  twelve  miles,  without  interrup- 
tion, in  about  fifty-three  minutes. 

The  "  Novelty"  was  next  called  out.  It  was  a  light  engine,  very 
compact  in  appearance,  carrying  the  water  and  fuel  upon  the 
same  wheels  as  the  engine.  The  weight  of  the  whole  was  only 
three  tons  and  one  hundred  weight.  A  peculiarity  of  this  engine 
was  that  the  air  was  driven  or  forced  through  the  fire  by  means 
of  bellows.  The  day  being  now  far  advanced,  and  some  dispute 
*  Mr.  Wood's  speech  at  Newcastle,  26th  of  October,  1858. 


324 


THE  "SANSPAREIL"  AND  "ROCKET.' 


[PART  II. 


having  arisen  as  to  the  method  of  assigning  the  proper  load  for 
the  "  Novelty,"  no  particular  experiment  was  made  farther  than 
that  the  engine  traversed  the  line  by  way  of  exhibition,  occasion- 
ally moving  at  the  rate  of  twenty-four  miles  an  hour.  The  "  Sans- 
pareil,"  constructed  by  Mr.  Timothy  Hackworth,  was  next  exhib- 
ited, but  no  particular  experiment  was  made  with  it  on  this  day. 
This  engine  differed  but  little  in  its  construction  from  the  loco- 
motive last  supplied  by  the  Stephensons  to  the  Stockton  and  Dar- 
lington Railway,  of  which  Mr.  Hackworth  was  the  locomotive 
foreman. 

The  contest  was  postponed  until  the  following  day ;  but,  before 
the  judges  arrived  on  the  ground,  the  bellows  for  creating  the 
blast  in  the  "  Novelty"  gave  way,  and  it  was  found  incapable  of 


LOCOMOTIVE  COMPETITION   AT   KAINHILL. 


going  through  its  performance.  A  defect  was  also  detected  in 
the  boiler  of  the  "  Sanspareil,"  and  some  farther  time  was  allowed 
to  get  it  repaired.  The  large  number  of  spectators  who  had  as- 
sembled to  witness  the  contest  were  greatly  disappointed  at  this 
postponement;  but,  to  lessen  it,  Stephenson  again- brought  out 
the  "  Rocket,"  and,  attaching  to  it  a  coach  containing  thirty  per- 
sons, he  ran  them  along  the  line  at  the  rate  of  from  twenty-four 
to  thirty  miles  an  hour,  much  to  their  gratification  and  amaze- 
ment. Before  separating,  the  judges  ordered  the  engine  to  be  in 
readiness  by  eight  o'clock  on  the  following  morning,  to  go  through 
its  definitive  trial  according  to  the  prescribed  conditions. 

On  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  October  the  "  Rocket"  was  again 
ready  for  the  contest.    The  engine  was  taken  to  the  extremity  of 


CHAP.  XII.]  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  "ROCKET."  325 

the  stage,  the  fire-box  was  filled  with  coke,  the  fire  lighted,  and 
the  steam  raised  until  it  lifted  the  safety-valve  loaded  to  a  press- 
ure of  fifty  pounds  to  the  square  inch.  This  proceeding  occu- 
pied fifty-seven  minutes.  The  engine  then  started  on  its  journey, 
dragging  after  it  about  thirteen  tons'  weight  in  wagons,  and  made 
the  first  ten  trips  backward  and  forward  along  the  two  miles  of 
road,  running  the  thirty-five  miles,  including  stoppages,  in  an 
hour  and  forty-eight  minutes.  The  second  ten  trips  were  in  like 
manner  performed  in  two  hours  and  three  minutes.  The  maxi- 
mum velocity  attained  during  the  trial  trip  was  twenty-nine  miles 
an  hour,  or  about  three  times  the  speed  that  one  of  the  judges  of 
the  competition  had  declared  to  be  the  limit  of  possibility.  The 
average  speed  at  which  the  whole  of  the  journeys  were  performed 
was  fifteen  miles  an  hour,  or  five  miles  beyond  the  rate  specified 
in  the  conditions  published  by  the  company.  The  entire  perform- 
ance excited  the  greatest  astonishment  among  the  assembled  spec- 
tators ;  the  directors  felt  confident  that  their  enterprise  was  now 
on  the  eve  of  success ;  and  George  Stephenson  rejoiced  to  think 
that,  in  spite  of  'all  false  prophets  and  fickle  counselors,  the  lo- 
comotive system  was  now  safe.  When  the  "Rocket,"  having 
performed  all  the  conditions  of  the  contest,  arrived  at  the  "grand 
stand"  at  the  close  of  its  day's  successful  run,  Mr.  Cropper — one 
of  the  directors  favorable  to  the  fixed  engine  system — lifted  up 
his  hands,  and  exclaimed, "  Now  has  George  Stephenson  at  last 
delivered  himself." 

Neither  the  "Novelty"  nor  the  "  Sanspareil"  was  ready  for  trial 
until  the  10th,  on  the  morning  of  which  day  an  advertisement  ap- 
peared, stating  that  the  former  engine  was  to  be  tried  on  that 
day,  when  it  would  perform  more  work  than  any  engine  on  the 
ground.  The  weight  of  the  carriages  attached  to  it  was  only 
about  seven  tons.  The  engine  passed  the  first  post  in  good  style ; 
but,  in  returning,  the  pipe  from  the  forcing-pump  burst  and  put 
an  end  to  the  trial.  The  pipe  was  afterward  repaired,  and  the 
engine  made  several  trips  by  itself,  in  which  it  was  said  to  have 
gone  at  the  rate  of  from  twenty-four  to  twenty-eight  miles  an 
hour. 

The  "Sanspareil"  was  not  ready  until  the  13th;  and  when  its 
boiler  and  tender  were  filled  with  water,  it  was  found  to  weigh 
four  hundred  weight  beyond  the  weight  specified  in  the  published 


326  FAILURE  OF  THE  OTHER  ENGINES.  [PAET  II. 

conditions  as  the  limit  of  four-wheeled  engines ;  nevertheless,  the 
judges  allowed  it  to  run  on  the  same  footing  as  the  other  engines, 
to  enable  them  to  ascertain  whether  its  merits  entitled  it  to  favor- 
able consideration.  It  traveled  at  the  average  speed  of  about 
fourteen  miles  an  hour,  with  its  load  attached ;  but  at  the  eighth 
trip  the  cold-water  pump  got  wrong,  and  the  engine  could  pro- 
ceed no  farther. 

It  was  determined  to  award  the  premium  to  the  successful  en- 
gine on  the  following  day,  the  14th,  on  which  occasion  there  was 
an  unusual  assemblage  of  spectators.  The  owners  of  the  "  Novel- 
ty" pleaded  for  another  trial,  and  it  was  conceded.  But  again  it 
broke  down.  Then  Mr.  Hackworth  requested  the  opportunity 
for  making  another  trial  of  his  "  Sanspareil."  But  the  judges 
had  now  had  enough  of  failures,  and  they  declined,  on  the  ground 
that  not  only  was  the  engine  above  the  stipulated  weight,  but 
that  it  was  constructed  on  a  plan  which  they  could  not  recom- 
mend for  adoption  by  the  directors  of  the  company.  One  of  the 
principal  practical  objections  to  this  locomotive  was  the  enormous 
quantity  of  coke  consumed  or  wasted  by  it — about  692  Ibs.  per 
hour  when  traveling — caused  by  the  sharpness  of  the  steam-blast 
in  the  chimney,  which  blew  a  large  proportion  of  the  burning 
coke  into  the  air. 

The  "  Perseverance"  of  Mr.  Burstall  was  found  unable  to  move 
at  more  than  five  or  six  miles  an  hour,  and  it  was  withdrawn 
from  the  contest  at  an  early  period.  The  "  Rocket"  was  thus  the 
only  engine  that  had  performed,  and  more  than  performed,  all 
the  stipulated  conditions,  and  it  was  declared  to  be  entitled  to  the 
prize  of  £500,  which  was  awarded  to  the  Messrs.  Stephenson  and 
Booth  accordingly.  And  farther  to  show  that  the  engine  had 
been  working  quite  within  its  powers,  George  Stephenson  ordered 
it  to  be  brought  upon  the  ground  and  detached  from  all  incum- 
brances,  when,  in  making  two  trips,  it  was  found  to  travel  at  the 
astonishing  rate  of  thirty-five  miles  an  hour. 

The  "  Rocket"  had  thus  eclipsed  the  performances  of  all  loco- 
motive engines  that  had  yet  been  constructed,  and  outstripped 
even  the  sanguine  expectations  of  its  constructors.  It  satisfac- 
torily answered  the  report  of  Messrs.  Walker  and  Rastrick,  and 
established  the  efficiency  of  the  locomotive  for  working  the  Liv- 
erpool and  Manchester  Railway,  and,  indeed,  all  future  railways. 


CHAP.  XIL]  END  OF  THE  "ROCKET."  327 

The  "  Rocket"  showed  that  a  new  power  had  been  born  into  the 
world,  full  of  activity  and  strength,  with  boundless  capability  of 
work.  It  was  the  simple  but  admirable  contrivance  of  the  steam- 
blast,  and  its  combination  with  the  multitubular  boiler,  that  at 
once  gave  locomotion  a  vigorous  life,  and  secured  the  triumph  of 
the  railway  system.*  As  has  been  well  observed,  this  wonderful 
ability  to  increase  and  multiply  its  powers  of  performance  with 
the  emergency  that  demands  them  has  made  this  giant  engine 
the  noblest  creation  of  human  wit,  the  very  lion  among  machines. 
The  success  of  the  Rainhill  experiment,  as  judged  by  the  public, 
may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  shares  of  the  company 
immediately  rose  ten  per  cent.,  and  nothing  farther  was  heard  of 
the  proposed  twenty-one  fixed  engines,  engine-houses,  ropes,  etc. 
All  this  cumbersome  apparatus  was  thenceforward  effectually 
disposed  of. 

Very  different  now  was  the  tone  of  those  directors  who  had 
distinguished  themselves  by  the  persistency  of  their  opposition  to 
George  Stephenson's  plans.  Coolness  gave  way  to  eulogy,  and 
hostility  to  unbounded  offers  of  friendship,  after  the  manner  of 
many  men  who  run  to  the  help  of  the  strong.  Deeply  though 
the  engineer  had  felt  aggrieved  by  the  conduct  exhibited  toward 
him  during  this  eventful  struggle  by  some  from  whom  forbear- 
ance was  to  have  been  expected,  he  never  entertained  toward 
them  in  after  life  any  angry  feelings;  on  the  contrary,  he  for- 
gave all.  But,  though  the  directors  afterward  passed  unanimous 
resolutions  eulogizing  "  the  great  skill  and  unwearied  energy"  of 

*  When  heavier  and  more  powerful  engines  were  brought  upon  the  road,  the  old 
"  Rocket,"  becoming  regarded  as  a  thing  of  no  value,  was  sold  in  1837.  It  was  pur- 
chased by  Mr.  Thompson,  of  Kirkhouse,  the  lessee  of  the  Earl  of  Carlisle's  coal  .and 
lime  works,  near  Carlisle.  He  worked  the  engine  on  the  Midgeholme  Railway  for 
five  or  six  years,  during  which  it  hauled  coals  from  the  pits  to  the  town.  There  was 
wonderful  vitality  in  the  old  engine,  as  the  following  circumstance  proves.  When 
the  great  contest  for  the  representation  of  East  Cumberland  took  place,  and  Sir  James 
Graham  was  superseded  by  Major  Aglionby,  the  "Rocket"  was  employed  to  convey 
the  Alston  express  with  the  state  of  the  poll  from  Midgeholme  to  Kirkhouse.  On 
that  occasion  the  engine  was  driven  by  Mr.  Mark  Thompson,  and  it  ran  the  distance 
of  upward  of  four  miles  in  four  and  a  half  minutes,  thus  reaching  a  speed  of  nearly 
sixty  miles  an  hour,  proving  its  still  admirable  qualities  as  an  engine.  But  again  it 
was  superseded  by  heavier  engines ;  for  it  only  weighed  about  four  tons,  whereas  the 
new  engines  were  at  least  three  times  that  weight.  The  "Rocket"  was  consequently 
laid  up  in  ordinary  in  the  yard  at  Kirkhouse,  from  whence  it  has  since  been 
ferred  to  the  Museum  of  Patents  at  Kensington,  where  it  is  still  to  be  seen. 


FAIR-WEATHER  FRIENDS. 


[PART  II. 


their  engineer,  he  himself,  when  speaking  confidentially  to  those 
with  whom  he  was  most  intimate,  could  not  help  pointing  out 
the  difference  between  his  "  foul  -  weather  and  fair  -  weather 
friends."  Mr.  Gooch  says  that,  though  naturally  most  cheerful 
and  kind-hearted  in  disposition,  the  anxiety  and  pressure  which 
weighed  upon  his  mind  during  the  construction  of  the  railway 
had  the  effect  of  making  him  occasionally  impatient  and  irritable, 
like  a  spirited  horse  touched  by  the  spur,  though  his  original  good 
nature  from  time  to  time  shone  through  it  all.  When  the  line 
had  been  brought  to  a  successful  completion,  a  very  marked 
change  in  him  became  visible.  The  irritability  passed  away, 
and  when  difficulties  and  vexations  arose  they  were  treated  by 
him  as  matters  of  course,  and  with  perfect  composure  and  cheer- 
fulness. 


versus  EOAD. 


CHAP.  XIII.]          LINE  OVER  CHAT  MOSS  OPENED.  329 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

OPENING   OF  THE  LIVERPOOL   AND   MANCHESTER   RAILWAY,  AND 
EXTENSION   OF   THE   RAILWAY   SYSTEM. 

THE  directors  of  the  railway  now  began  to  see  daylight,  and 
they  derived  encouragement  from  the  skillful  manner  in  which 
their  engineer  had  overcome  the  principal  difficulties  of  the  un- 
dertaking. He  had  formed  a  solid  road  over  Chat  Moss,  and 
thus  achieved  one  "  impossibility ;"  and  he  had  constructed  a  lo- 
comotive that  could  run  at  a  speed  of  thirty  miles  an  hour,  thus 
vanquishing  a  still  more  formidable  difficulty. 

A  single  line  of  way  was  completed  over  Chat  Moss  by  the  1st 
of  January,  1830,  and  on  that  day  the  "  Rocket,"  with  a  carriage 
full  of  directors,  engineers,  and  their  friends,  passed  along  the 
greater  part  of  the  road  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester.  Mr. 
Stephenson  continued  to  direct  his  close  attention  to  the  improve- 
ment of  the  details  of  the  locomotive,  every  successive  trial  of 
which  proved  more  satisfactory.  In  this  department  he  had  the 
benefit  of  the  able  and  unremitting  assistance  of  his  son,  who,  in 
the  workshops  at  Newcastle,  directly  superintended  the  construc- 
tion of  the  engines  required  for  the  public  working  of  the  rail- 
way. He  did  not  by  any  means  rest  satisfied  with  the  success, 
decided  though  it  was,  which  had  been  achieved  by  the  "  Rocket." 
He  regarded  it  but  in  the  light  of  a  successful  experiment ; 
and  every  successive  engine  placed  upon  the  railway  exhibited 
some  improvement  on  its  predecessors.  The  arrangement  of  the 
parts,  and  the  weight  and  proportion  of  the  engines,  were  alter- 
ed as  the  experience  of  each  successive  day,  or  week,  or  month 
suggested ;  and  it  was  soon  found  that  the  performances  of  the 
"  Rocket"  on  the  day  of  trial  had  been  greatly  within  the  powers 
of  the  improved  locomotive. 

The  first  entire  trip  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester  was 
performed  on  the  14th  of  June,  1830,  on  the  occasion  of  a  board 
meeting  being  held  at  the  latter  town.  The  train  was  on  this 


330  THE  "ARROW."— THE  PUBLIC  OPENING.         [PART  II. 

occasion  drawn  by  the  "  Arrow,"  one  of  the  new  locomotives,  in 
which  the  most  recent  improvements  had  been  adopted.  George 
Stephenson  himself  drove  the  engine,  and  Captain  Scoresby,  the 
circumpolar  navigator,  stood  beside  him  on  the  foot-plate,  and 
minuted  the  speed  of  the  train.  A  great  concourse  of  people  as- 
sembled at  both  termini,  as  well  as  along  the  line,  to  witness  the 
novel  spectacle  of  a  train  of  carriages  drawn  by  an  engine  at  the 
speed  of  seventeen  miles  an  hour.  On  the  return  journey  to  Liv- 
erpool in  the  evening,  the  "  Arrow"  crossed  Chat  Moss  at  a  speed 
of  nearly  twenty-seven  miles  an  hour,  reaching  its  destination  in 
about  an  hour  and  a  half. 

In  the  mean  time  Mr.  Stephenson  and  his  assistant,  Mr.  Gooch, 
were  diligently  occupied  in  making  the  necessary  preliminary 
arrangements  for  the  conduct  of  the  traffic  against  the  time  when 
the  line  should  be  ready  for  opening.  The  experiments  made 
with  the  object  of  carrying  on  the  passenger  traffic  at  quick  ve- 
locities were  of  an  especially  harassing  and  anxious  character. 
Every  week,  for  nearly  three  months  before  the  opening,  trial 
trips  were  made  to  Newton  and  back,  generally  with  two  or  three 
trains  following  each  other,  and  carrying  altogether  from  two  to 
three  hundred  persons.  These  trips  were  usually  made  on  Satur- 
day afternoons,  when  the  works  could  be  more  conveniently  stop- 
ped and  the  line  cleared  for  the  occasion.  In  these  experiments 
Mr.  Stephenson  had  the  able  assistance  of  Mr.  Henry  Booth,  the 
secretary  of  the  company,  who  contrived  many  of  the  arrange- 
ments in  the  passenger  carriages,  not  the  least  valuable  of  which 
was  his  invention  of  the  coupling  screw,  still  in  use  on  all  passen- 
ger railways. 

At  length  the  line  was  finished  and  ready  for  the  public  open- 
ing, which  took  place  on  the  15th  of  September,  1830,  and  at- 
tracted a  vast  number  of  spectators  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 
The  completion  of  the  railway  was  justly  regarded  as  an  impor- 
tant national  event,  and  the  ceremony  of  its  opening  was  cele- 
brated accordingly.  The  Duke  of  Wellington,  then  prime  min- 
ister, Sir  Robert  Peel,  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Huskisson,  one  of 
the  members  for  Liverpool  and  an  earnest  supporter  of  the  pro- 
ject from  its  commencement,  were  among  the  number  of  distin- 
guished public  personages  present. 

Eight  locomotive  engines,  constructed  at  the  Stephenson  works, 


CiiAp.Xm.]  ACCIDENT  TO  MR.  HUSKISSON.  331 

had  been  delivered  and  placed  upon  the  line,  the  whole  of  which 
had  been  tried  and  tested,  weeks  before,  with  perfect  success.  The 
several  trains  of  carriages  accommodated  in  all  about  six  hundred 
pei-sons.  The  "Northumbrian"  engine,  driven  by  George  Ste- 
phenson  himself,  headed  the  line  of  trains ;  then  followed  the 
"  Phrenix,"  driven  by  Kobert  Stephenson ;  the  "  North  Star,"  by 
Robert  Stephenson  senior  (brother  of  George) ;  the  "  Kocket,"  by 
Joseph  Locke ;  the  "  Dart,"  by  Thomas  L.  Gooch ;  the  "  Comet," 
by  William  Allcard  ;  the  "Arrow,"  by  Frederick  Swanwick ;  and 
the  "  Meteor,"  by  Anthony  Harding.  The  procession  was  cheered 
in  its  progress  by  thousands  of  spectators — through  the  deep  ra- 
vine of  Olive  Mount ;  up  the  Sutton  incline ;  over  the  great  San- 
key  viaduct,  beneath  which  a  multitude  of  persons  had  assembled 
— carriages  filling  the  narrow  lanes,  and  barges  crowding  the 
river;  the  people  below  gazing  with  wonder  and  admiration  at 
the  trains  which  sped  along  the  line,  far  above  their  heads,  at  the 
rate  of  some  twenty-four  miles  an  hour. 

At  Parkside,  about  seventeen  miles  from  Liverpool,  the  engines 
stopped  to  take  in  water.  Here  a  deplorable  accident  occurred 
to  one  of  the  illustrious  visitors,  which  threw  a  deep  shadow  over 
the  subsequent  proceedings  of  the  day.  The  "  Northumbrian"  en- 
gine, with  the  carriage  containing  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  was 
drawn  up  on  one  line,  in  order  that  the  whole  of  the  trains  on  the 
other  line  might  pass  in  review  before  him  and  his  party.  Mr. 
Huskisson  had  alighted  from  the  carriage,  and  was  standing  on 
the  opposite  road,  along  which  the  "  Rocket"  was  observed  rapid- 
ly coming  up.  At  this  moment  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  between 
whom  and  Mr.  Huskisson  some  coolness  had  existed,  made  a  sign 
of  recognition,  and  held  out  his  hand.  A  hurried  but  friendly 
grasp  was  given ;  and  before  it  was  loosened  there  was  a  general 
cry  from  the  by-standers  of  "  Get  in,  get  in !"  Flurried  and  con- 
fused, Mr.  Huskisson  endeavored  to  get  round  the  open  door  of 
the  carriage,  which  projected  over  the  opposite  rail,  but  in  so 
doing  he  was  struck  down  by  the  "  Rocket,"  and  falling  with  his 
leg  doubled  across  the  rail,  the  limb  was  instantly  crushed.  His 
first  words,  on  being  raised,  were, "  I  have  met  my  death,"  which 
unhappily  proved  true,  for  he  expired  that  same  evening  in  the 
parsonage  of  Eccles.  It  was  cited  at  the  time  as  a  remarkable 
fact  that  the  "  Northumbrian"  engine,  driven  by  George  Stephen- 


332  THE  RAIL  WA  Y  PUDLICL  Y  OPENED.  [PART  II. 

son  himself,  conveyed  the  wounded  body  of  the  unfortunate  gen- 
tleman a  distance  of  about  fifteen  miles  in  twenty-five  minutes, 
or  at  the  rate  of  thirty-six  miles  an  hour.  This  incredible  speed 
burst  upon  the  world  with  the  effect  of  a  new  and  unlooked-for 
phenomenon. 

The  accident  threw  a  gloom  over  the  rest  of  the  day's  proceed- 
ings. The  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Sir  Robert  Peel  expressed  a 
wish  that  the  procession  should  return  to  Liverpool.  It  was,  how- 
ever, represented  to  them  that  a  vast  concourse  of  people  had  as- 
sembled at  Manchester  to  witness  the  arrival  of  the  trains ;  that 
report  would  exaggerate  the  mischief  if  they  did  not  complete 
the  journey ;  and  that  a  false  panic  on  that  day  might  seriously 
affect  future  railway  traveling  and  the  value  of  the  company's 
property.  The  party  consented  accordingly  to  proceed  to  Man- 
chester, but  on  the  understanding  that  they  should  return  as  soon 
as  possible,  and  refrain  from  farther  festivity. 

As  the  trains  approached  Manchester,  crowds  of  people  were 
found  covering  the  banks,  the  slopes  of  the  cuttings,  and  even  the 
railway  itself.  The  multitude,  become  impatient  and  excited  by 
the  rumors  which  reached  them,  had  outflanked  the  military,  and 
all  order  was  at  an  end.  The  people  clambered  about  the  car- 
riages, holding  on  by  the  door-handles,  and  many  were  tumbled 
over ;  but,  happily,  no  fatal  accident  occurred.  At  the  Manches- 
ter station  the  political  element  began  to  display  itself ;  placards 
about "  Peterloo,"  etc.,  were  exhibited,  and  brickbats  were  thrown 
at  the  carriage  containing  the  duke.  On  the  trains  coming  to  a 
stand  in  the  Manchester  station,  the  duke  did  not  descend,  but  re- 
mained seated,  shaking  hands  with  the  women  and  children  who 
were  pushed  forward  by  the  crowd.  Shortly  after,  the  trains  re- 
turned to  Liverpool,  which  they  reached,  after  considerable  de- 
lays, late  at  night. 

On  the  following  morning  the  railway  was  opened  for  public 
traffic.  The  first  train  of  140  passengers  was  booked  and  sent  on 
to  Manchester,  reaching  it  in  the  allotted  time  of  two  hours ;  and 
from  that  time  the  traffic  has  regularly  proceeded  from  day  to 
day  until  now. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  that  we  should  speak  at  any  length  of 
the  commercial  results  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  its  success  was  complete  and  decisive.  The 


CHAP.  XIII.]  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  TRAFFIC.  333 

anticipations  of  its  projectors  were,  however,  in  many  respects  at 
fault.  They  had  based  their  calculations  almost  entirely  on  the 
heavy  merchandise  traffic — such  as  coal,  cotton,  and  timber — re- 
lying little  upon  passengers ;  whereas  the  receipts  derived  from 
the  conveyance  of  passengers  far  exceeded  those  derived  from 
merchandise  of  all  kinds,  which  for  a  time  continued  a  subordi- 
nate branch  of  the  traffic.  In  the  evidence  given  before  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Commons,  the  promoters  stated  their  ex- 
pectation of  obtaining  about  one  half  of  the  whole  number  of 
passengers  which  the  coaches  then  running  could  carry,  or  about 
400  a  day.  But  the  railway  was  scarcely  opened  before  it  car- 
ried on  an  average  about  1200  passengers  daily ;  and  five  years 
after  the  opening,  it  carried  nearly  half  a  million  of  persons 
yearly.  So  successful,  indeed,  was  the  passenger  traffic,  that  it 
engrossed  the  whole  of  the  company's  small  stock  of  engines. 

For  some  time  after  the  public  opening  of  the  line,  Mr.  Ste- 
phenson's  ingenuity  continued  to  be  employed  in  devising  im- 
proved methods  for  securing  the  safety  and  comfort  of  the  trav- 
eling public.  Few  are  aware  of  the  thousand  minute  details 
which  have  to  be  arranged — the  forethought  and  contrivance 
that  have  to  be  exercised — to  enable  the  traveler  by  railway  to 
accomplish  his  journey  in  safety.  After  the  difficulties  of  con- 
structing a  level  road  over  bogs,  across  valleys,  and  through  deep 
cuttings  have  been  overcome,  the  maintenance  of  the  way  has  to 
be  provided  for  with  continuous  care.  Every  rail,  with  its  fasten- 
ings, must  be  complete,  to  prevent  risk  of  accident,  and  the  road 
must  be  kept  regularly  ballasted  up  to  the  level  to  diminish  the 
jolting  of  vehicles  passing  over  it  at  high  speeds.  Then  the  sta- 
tions must  be  protected  by  signals  observable  from  such  a  dis- 
tance as  to  enable  the  train  to  be  stopped  in  event  of  an  obstacle, 
such  as  a  stopping  or  shunting  train  being  in  the  way.  For  some 
years  the  signals  employed  on  the  Liverpool  Railway  were  en- 
tirely given  by  men  with  flags  of  different  colors  stationed  along 
the  line ;  there  were  no  fixed  signals  nor  electric  telegraphs ;  but 
the  traffic  was  nevertheless  worked  quite  as  safely  as  under  the 
more  elaborate  and  complicated  system  of  telegraphing  which 
has  since  been  established. 

From  an  early  period  it  became  obvious  that  the  iron  road,  as 
originally  laid  down,  was  quite  insufficient  for  the  heavy  traffic 


334  IMPROVEMENT  OF  ROAD  AND  PLANT.  [PART  H. 

which  it  had  to  carry.  The  line  was  in  the  first  place  laid  with 
fish-bellied  rails  of  only  thirty-five  pounds  to  the  yard,  calculated 
only  for  horse-traffic,  or,  at  most,  for  engines  like  the  "  Rocket," 
of  very  light  weight.  But  as  the  power  and  the  weight  of  the 
locomotives  were  increased,  it  was  found  that  such  rails  were 
quite  insufficient  for  the  safe  conduct  of  the  traific,  and  it  there- 
fore became  necessary  to  relay  the  road  with  heavier  and  stronger 
rails  at  considerable  expense. 

The  details  of  the  carrying  stock  had  in  like  manner  to  be  set- 
tled by  experience.  Every  thing  had,  as  it  were,  to  be  begun 
from  the  beginning.  The  coal-wagon,  it  is  true,  served  in  some 
degree  as  a  model  for  the  railway-truck ;  but  the  railway  passen- 
ger-carriage was  an  entirely  novel  structure.  It  had  to  be 
mounted  upon  strong  framing,  of  a  peculiar  kind,  supported  on 
springs  to  prevent  jolting.  Then  there  was  the  necessity  for  con- 
triving some  method  of  preventing  hard  bumping  of  the  carriage- 
ends  when  the  train  was  pulled  up,  and  hence  the  contrivance 
of  buffer-springs  and  spring-frames.  For  the  purpose  of  stop- 
ping the  train,  brakes  on  an  improved  plan  were  also  contrived, 
with  new  modes  of  lubricating  the  carriage-axles,  on  which  the 
wheels  revolved  at  an  unusually  high  velocity.  In  all  these  con- 
trivances Mr.  Stephenson's  inventiveness  was  kept  constantly  on 
the  stretch ;  and  though  many  improvements  in  detail  have  been 
effected  since  his  time,  the  foundations  were  then  laid  by  him  of 
the  present  system  of  conducting  railway  traffic.  As  a  curious 
illustration  of  the  inventive  ingenuity  which  he  displayed  in  con- 
triving the  working  of  the  Liverpool  line,  we  may  mention  his 
invention  of  the  Self-acting  Brake.  He  early  entertained  the 
idea  that  the  momentum  of  the  running  train  might  itself  be 
made  available  for  the  purpose  of  checking  its  speed.  He  pro- 
posed to  fit  each  carriage  with  a  brake  which  should  be  called 
into  action  immediately  on  the  locomotive  at  the  head  of  the 
train  being  pulled  up.  The  impetus  of  the  carriages  carrying 
them  forward,  the  buffer-springs  would  be  driven  home,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  by  a  simple  arrangement  of  the  mechanism,  the 
brakes  would  be  called  into  simultaneous  action ;  thus  the  wheels 
would  be  brought  into  a  state  of  sledge,  and  the  train  speedily 
stopped.  This  plan  was  adopted  by  Mr,  Stephenson  before  he 
left  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway,  though  it  was  after- 


CHAP.XIH.]     IMPROVEMENT  OF  THE  LOCOMOTIVE.  335 

ward  discontinued ;  and  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  this  identi- 
cal plan,  with  the  addition  of  a  centrifugal  apparatus,  was  recent- 
ly revived  by  M.  GueYin,  a  French  engineer,  and  extensively  em- 
ployed on  foreign  railways. 

Finally,  Mr.  Stephenson  had  to  attend  to  the  improvement  of 
the  power  and  speed  of  the  locomotive — always  the  grand  object 
of  his  study — with  a  view  to  economy  as  well  as  regularity  in  the 
working  of  the  railway.  In  the  "  Planet"  engine,  delivered  upon 
the  line  immediately  subsequent  to  the  public  opening,  all  the 
improvements  which  had  up  to  this  time  been  contrived  by  him 
and  his  son  were  introduced  in  combination — the  blast-pipe,  the 
tubular  boiler,  horizontal  cylinders  inside  the  smoke-box,  the 
cranked  axle,  and  the  fire-box  firmly  fixed  to  the  boiler.  The 
first  load  of  goods  conveyed  from  Liverpool  to  Manchester  by 
the  "  Planet"  was  eighty  tons  in  weight,  and  the  engine  perform- 
ed the  journey  against  a  strong  head  wind  in  two  hours  and  a 
half.  On  another  occasion,  the  same  engine  brought  up  a  cargo 
of  voters  from  Manchester  to  Liverpool,  during  a  contested  elec- 
tion, within  a  space  of  sixty  minutes.  The  "  Samson,"  delivered 
in  the  following  year,  exhibited  still  farther  improvements,  the 
most  important  of  which  was  that  of  coupling  the  fore  and  hind 
wheels  of  the  engine.  By  this  means  the  adhesion  of  the  wheels 
on  the  rails  was  more  effectually  secured,  and  thus  the  full  haul- 
ing power  of  the  locomotive  was  made  available.  The  "  Sam- 
son," shortly  after  it  was  placed  upon  the  line,  dragged  after  it  a 
train  of  wagons  weighing  a  hundred  and  fifty  tons  at  a  speed  of 
about  twenty  miles  an  hour,  the  consumption  of  coke  being  re- 
duced to  only  about  a  third  of  a  pound  per  ton  per  mile. 

The  rapid  progress  thus  made  will  show  that  the  inventive 
faculties  of  Mr.  Stephenson  and  his  son  were  kept  fully  on  the 
stretch ;  but  their  labors  were  amply  repaid  by  the  result.  They 
were,  doubtless,  to  some  extent  stimulated  by  the  number  of  com- 
petitors who  about  the  same  time  appeared  as  improvers  of  the 
locomotive  engine.  But  the  superiority  of  Stephenson's  locomo- 
tives over  all  others  that  had  yet  been  tried  induced  the  directors 
of  the  railway  to  require  that  the  engines  supplied  to  them  by 
other  builders  should  be  constructed  after  the  same  model.  Mr. 
Stephenson  himself  always  had  the  greatest  faith  in  the  superi- 
ority of  his  own  engines  over  all  others,  and  did  not  hesitate 


336  STEPHENSON'S  WORKMEN.  [PAET  II. 

strongly  to  declare  it.  When  it  was  once  proposed  to  introduce 
the  engines  of  another  maker  on  the  Manchester  and  Leeds  line, 
he  said, "Very  well;  I  have  no  objection;  but  put  them  to  this 

fair  test.  Hang  one  of 's  engines  on  to  one  of  mine,  back 

to  back.  Then  let  them  go  at  it ;  and  whichever  walks  away 
with  the  other,  thafs  the  engine? 

The  engineer  had  also  to  seek  out  the  proper  men  to  maintain 
and  watch  the  road,  and  more  especially  to  work  the  locomotive 
engines.  Steadiness,  sobriety,  common  sense,  and  practical  ex- 
perience were  the  qualities  which  he  especially  valued  in  those 
selected  by  him  for  that  purpose.  But  where  were  the  men  of 
experience  to  be  found  ?  Yery  few  railways  were  yet  at  work, 
and  these  were  almost  exclusively  confined  to  the  northern  coal 
counties ;  hence  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  drivers  and 
firemen  employed  on  the  Liverpool  line  were  brought  from  the 
neighborhood  of  Newcastle.  But  he  could  not  always  find  skill- 
ed workmen  enough  for  the  important  and  responsible  duties  to 
be  performed.  It  was  a  saying  of  his  that  "  he  could  engineer 
matter  very  well,  and  make  it  bend  to  his  purpose,  but  his  great- 
est difficulty  was  in  engineering  men?  He  often  wished  that  he 
could  contrive  heads  and  hands  on  which  he  might  rely,  as  easily 
as  he  could  construct  railways  and  manufacture  locomotives.  As 
it  was,  Stephenson's  mechanics  were  in  request  all  over  England 
— the  Newcastle  workshops  continuing  for  many  years  to  per- 
form the  part  of  a  training-school  for  engineers,  and  to  supply 
locomotive  superintendents  and  drivers,  not  only  for  England, 
but  for  nearly  every  country  in  Europe — preference  being  given 
to  them  by  the  directors  of  railways,  in  consequence  of  their  pre- 
vious training  and  experience,  as  well  as  because  of  their  gener- 
ally excellent  qualities  as  steady  and  industrious  workmen. 

The  success  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  experiment  natu- 
rally excited  great  interest.  People  flocked  to  Lancashire  from 
all  quarters  to  see  the  steam-coach  running  upon  a  railway  at 
three  times  the  speed  of  a  mail-coach,  and  to  enjoy  the  excite- 
ment of  actually  traveling  in  the  wake  of  an  engine  at  that  in- 
credible velocity.  The  travelers  returned  to  their  respective  dis- 
tricts full  of  the  wonders  of  the  locomotive,  considering  it  to  be 
the  greatest  marvel  of  the  age.  Kailways  are  familiar  enough 
objects  now,  and  our  children  who  grow  up  in  their  midst  may 


CHAP.  XIII.]  FAST  STA  GE-  CO  A  CH  TRA  VELING.  33  7 

think  little  of  them ;  but  thirty  years  since  it  was  an  event  in 
one's  life  to  see  a  locomotive,  and  to  travel  for  the  first  time  upon 
a  public  railroad. 

In  remote  districts,  however,  the  stories  told  about  the  benefits 
conferred  by  the  Liverpool  Railway  were  received  with  consid- 
erable incredulity,  and  the  proposal  to  extend  such  roads  in  all 
directions  throughout  the  country  caused  great  alarm.  In  the 
districts  through  which  stage-coaches  ran,  giving  employment  to 
large  numbers  of  persons,  it  was  apprehended  that,  if  railways 
were  established,  the  turnpike  roads  would  become  deserted  and 
grown  over  with  grass,  country  inns  and  their  buxom  landladies 
would  be  ruined,  the  race  of  coach-drivers  and  hostlers  would  be- 
come extinct,  and  the  breed  of  horses  be  entirely  destroyed.  But 
there  was  hope  for  the  coaching  interest  in  the  fact  that  the  gov- 
ernment were  employing  their  engineers  to  improve  the  public; 
high  roads  so  as  to  render  railways  unnecessary.  It  was  an- 
nounced in  the  papers  that  a  saving  of  thirty  miles  would  be  ef- 
fected by  the  new  road  between  London  and  Ilolyhead,  and  an 
equal  saving  between  London  and  Edinburg.  And  to  show  what 
the  speed  of  horses  could  accomplish,  ~we  find  it  set  forth  as  an 
extraordinary  fact  that  the  "  Patent  Tally-ho  Coach,"  in  the  year 
1830  (when  the  Birmingham  line  had  been  projected),  performed 
the  entire  journey  of  109  miles  between  London  and  Birming- 
ham— breakfast  included — in  seven  hours  and  fifty  minutes! 
Great  speed  was  also  recorded  on  the  Brighton  road,  the  "  Red 
Rover"  doing  the  distance  between  London  and  Brighton  in  four 
hours  and  a  half.  These  speeds  were  not,  however,  secured  with- 
out accidents,  for  there  was  scarcely  a  newspaper  of  the  period 
that  did  not  contain  one  or  more  paragraphs  headed  "  Another 
dreadful  coach  accident." 

The  practicability  of  railway  locomotion  being  now  proved, 
and  its  great  social  and  commercial  advantages  ascertained,  the 
extension  of  the  system  was  merely  a  question  of  time,  money, 
and  labor.  A  fine  opportunity  presented  itself  for  the  wise  and 
judicious  action  of  the  government  in  the  matter,  the  improve- 
ment of  the  internal  communications  of  a  country  being  really 
one  of  its  most  important  functions.  But  the  government  of  the 
day,  though  ready  enough  to  spend  money  in  improving  the  old 
turnpike  roads,  regarded  the  railroads  with  hostility,  and  met 

Y 


338  GOVERNMENT  AND  RAILWAYS.  [PART  II. 

them  with  obstructions  of  all  kinds.  They  seemed  to  think  it 
their  duty  to  protect  the  turnpike  trusts,  disregarding  the  para- 
mount interest  of  the  public.  This  may  possibly  account  for  the 
singular  circumstance  that,  at  the  very  time  they  were  manifest- 
ing indifference  or  aversion  to  the  locomotive  On  the  railroad, 
they  were  giving  every  encouragement  to  the  locomotive  on  turn- 
pike roads.  In  1831,  we  find  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons appointed  to  inquire  into  and  report  upon — not  the  railway 
system,  but — the  applicability  of  the  steam-carriage  to  common 
roads ;  and,  after  investigation,  the  committee  were  so  satisfied 
with  the  evidence  taken,  that  they  reported  decidedly  in  favor  of 
the  road  locomotive  system.  Though  they  ignored  the  railway, 
they  recognized  the  steam-carriage. 

But  even  a  Report  of  the  House  of  Commons,  powerful  though 
it  be,  can  not  alter  the  laws  of  gravity  and  friction ;  and  the  road 
locomotive  remained,  what  it  ever  will  be,  an  impracticable  ma- 
chine. Not  that  it  is  impossible  to  work  a  locomotive  upon  a 
common  road,  but  to  work  it  to  any  profit  at  all  as  compared  with 
the  locomotive  upon  a  railway.  Numerous  trials  of  steam-car- 
riages were  made  at  the  time  by  Sir  Charles  Dance,  Mr.  Hancock, 
Mr.  Gurney,  Sir  James  Anderson,  and  other  distinguished  gentle- 
men of  influence.  Journalists  extolled  their  utility,  compared 
with  "  the  much-boasted  application  on  railroads."*  But,  not- 
withstanding all  this,  and  the  House  of  Commons'  Keport  in  its 
favor,  Stephenson's  first  verdict,  pronounced  on  the  road  locomo- 
tive many  years  before,  when  he  was  only  an  engine- wright  at 
Killingworth,  was  fully  borne  out  by  the  result,  and  it  became 
day  by  day  clearer  that  the  attempt  to  introduce  the  engine  into 
general  use  upon  turnpike  roads  could  only  prove  a  delusion  and 
a  snare. 

Although  the  Legislature  took  no  initiative  step  in  the  direc- 
tion of  railway  extension,  the  public  spirit  and  enterprise  of  the 
country  did  not  fail  it  at  this  juncture.  The  English  people, 
though  they  may  be  defective  in  their  capacity  for  organization, 
are  strong  in  individualism,  and  not  improbably  their  admirable 
qualities  in  the  latter  respect  detract  from  their  efficiency  in  the 
former.  Thus,  in  all  times,  their  greatest  national  enterprises 
have  not  been  planned  by  officialism  and  carried  out  upon  any 

*  Letter  of  Mr.  John  Herapath  in  ' '  Mechanics'  Magazine, "  vol.  xv. ,  p.  1 23. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  RAILWAY  COMPANIES  FORMED.  339 

regular  system,  but  have  sprung,  like  their  Constitution,  their 
laws,  and  their  entire  industrial  arrangements,  from  the  force  of 
circumstances  and  the  individual  energies  of  the  people.  Hence 
railway  extension,  like  so  many  other  great  English  enterprises, 
was  now  left  to  be  carried  out  by  the  genius  of  English  engi- 
neers, backed  by  the  energy  of  the  British  public. 

The  mode  of  action  was  characteristic  and  national.  The  ex- 
ecution of  the  new  lines  was  undertaken  entirely  by  joint-stock 
associations  of  proprietors,  after  the  manner  of  the  Stockton  and 
Darlington,  and  Liverpool  and  Manchester  companies.  These 
associations  are  conformable  to  our  national  habits,  and  fit  well 
into  our  system  of  laws.  They  combine  the  power  of  vast  re- 
sources with  individual  watchfulness  and  motives  of  self-inter- 
est ;  and  by  their  means  gigantic  undertakings,  which  elsewhere 
would  be  impossible  to  any  but  kings  and  emperors  with  great 
national  resources  at  command,  were  carried  out  by  the  co-oper- 
ation of  private  persons.  And  the  results  of  this  combination  of 
means  and  of  enterprise  have  been  truly  marvelous.  Within  the 
life  of  the  present  generation,  the  private  citizens  of  England  en- 
gaged in  railway  extension  have,  in  the  face  of  government  ob- 
structions, and  without  taking  a  penny  from  the  public  purse, 
executed  a  system  of  communications  involving  works  of  the 
most  gigantic  kind,  which,  in  their  total  mass,  their  cost,  and 
their  public  utility,  far  exceed  the  most  famous  national  under- 
takings of  any  age  or  country. 

Mr.  Stephenson  was,  of  course,  actively  engaged  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  numerous  railways  now  projected  by  the  joint- 
stock  companies.  During  the  formation  of  the  Manchester  and 
Liverpool  line  he  had  been  consulted  respecting  many  projects  of 
a  similar  kind.  One  of  these  was  a  short  railway  between  Can- 
terbury and  Whitstable,  about  six  miles  in  length.  He  was  too 
much  occupied  with  the  works  at  Liverpool  to  give  this  scheme 
much  of  his  personal  attention ;  but  he  sent  his  assistant,  Mr. 
John  Dixon,  to  survey  the  line,  and  afterward  Mr.  Locke  to  su- 
perintend the  execution  of  the  works.  The  act  was  obtained  in 
1826,  and  the  line  was  opened  for  traffic  in  1830.  It  was  partly 
worked  by  fixed  engine-power,  and  partly  by  Stephenson's  loco- 
motives, similar  to  the  engines  used  upon  the  Stockton  and  Dar- 
lington Railway. 


340  NEW  ENGINEERS.  [PAET  II. 

But  the  desire  for  railway  extension  principally  pervaded  the 
manufacturing  districts,  especially  after  the  successful  opening 
of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line.  The  commercial  classes 
of  the  larger  towns  soon  became  eager  for  a  participation  in  the 
good  which  they  had  so  recently  derided.  Kail  way  projects 
were  set  on  foot  in  great  numbers,  and  Manchester  became  a 
centre  from  which  main  lines  and  branches  were  started  in  all 
directions.  The  interest,  however,  which  attaches  to  these  later 
schemes  is  of  a  much  less  absorbing  kind  than  that  which  be- 
longs to  the  early  history  of  the  railway  and  the  steps  by  which 
it  was  mainly  established.  We  naturally  sympathize  more  with 
the  early  struggles  of  a  great  principle,  its  trials  and  its  difficul- 
ties, than  with  its  after  stages  of  success ;  and,  however  gratified 
and  astonished  we  may  be  at  its  results,  the  interest  is  in  a  great 
measure  gone  when  its  triumph  has  become  a  matter  of  certainty. 

The  commercial  results  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line 
were  so  satisfactory,  and,  indeed,  so  greatly  exceeded  the  expecta- 
tions of  its  projectors,  that  many  of  the  abandoned  projects  of 
the  speculative  year  1825  were  forthwith  revived.  An  abundant 
crop  of  engineers  sprang  up,  ready  to  execute  railways  of  any 
extent.  Now  that  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line  had  been 
made,  and  the  practicability  of  working  it  by  locomotive  power 
had  been  proved,  it  was  as  easy  for  engineers  to  make  railways 
and  to  work  them  as  it  was  for  navigators  to  find  America  after 
Columbus  had  made  the  first  voyage.  Mr.  Francis  Giles  himself 
took  the  field  as  a  locomotive  railway  engineer,  attaching  himself 
to  the  Newcastle  and  Carlisle  and  London  and  Southampton 
projects.  Mr.  Brunei  appeared,  in  like  manner,  as  the  engineer 
of  the  line  projected  between  London  and  Bristol ;  and  Mr. 
Braithwaite,  the  builder  of  the  "  Novelty"  engine,  as  the  engineer 
of  a  line  from  London  to  Colchester. 

The  first  lines,  however,  which  were  actually  constructed  sub- 
sequent to  the  opening  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway 
were  in  connection  with  it,  and  principally  in  the  county  of  Lan- 
caster. Thus  a  branch  was  formed  from  Bolton  to  Leigh,  and 
another  from  Leigh  to  Kenyon,  where  it  formed  a  junction  with 
the  main  line  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester.  Branches  to 
Wigan  on  the  north,  and  to  Runcorn  Gap  and  Warrington  on 
the  south  of  the  same  line,  were  also  formed ;  and  a  continuation 


CHAP.XIH.]  OPPOSITION  OF  LAND-OWNERS.  341 

of  the  latter,  as  far  south  as  Birmingham,  was  shortly  after  pro- 
jected, under  the  name  of  the  Grand  Junction  Railway. 

The  last-mentioned  line  was  projected  as  early  as  the  year  1824, 
when  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  scheme  was  under  discussion, 
and  Mr.  Stephenson  then  published  a  report  on  the  subject.  The 
plans  were  deposited,  but  the  bill  was  thrown  out  on  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  land-owners  and  canal  proprietors.  When  engaged  in 
making  the  survey,  Stephenson  called  upon  some  of  the  land- 
owners in  the  neighborhood  of  Nantwich  to  obtain  their  assent, 
and  was  greatly  disgusted  to  learn  that  the  agents  of  the  canal 
companies  had  been  before  him,  and  described  the  locomotive  to 
the  farmers  as  a  most  frightful  machine,  emitting  a  breath  as 
poisonous  as  the  fabled  dragon  of  old ;  and  telling  them  that  if  a 
bird  flew  over  the  district  when  one  of  these  engines  passed,  it 
would  inevitably  drop  down  dead !  The  application  for  the  bill 
was  renewed  in  1826,  and  again  failed ;  and  at  length  it  was  de- 
termined to  wait  the  issue  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  ex- 
periment. The  act  was  eventually  obtained  in  1833,  by  which 
time  the  projectors  of  railways  had  learned  the  art  of  "  concilia- 
ting" the  landlords — and  a  very  expensive  process  it  proved.  But 
it  was  the  only  mode  of  avoiding  a  still  more  expensive  Parlia- 
mentary opposition. 

When  it  was  proposed  to  extend  the  advantages  of  railways  to 
the  population  of  the  midland  and  southern  counties  of  England, 
an  immense  amount  of  alarm  was  created  in  the  minds  of  the 
country  gentlemen.  They  did  not  relish  the  idea  of  private  in- 
dividuals, principally  residents  in  the  manufacturing  districts,  in- 
vading their  domains,  and  they  every  where  rose  up  in  arms 
against  the  "  new-fangled  roads."  Colonel  Sibthorpe  openly  de- 
clared his  hatred  of  the  "  infernal  railroads,"  and  said  that  he 
"would  rather  meet  a  highwayman,  or  see  a  burglar  on  his 
premises,  than  an  engineer!"  Mr.  Berkeley,  the  member  for 
Cheltenham,  at  a  public  meeting  in  that  town,  re-echoed  Colonel 
Sibthorpe's  sentiments,  and  "  wished  that  the  concoctors  of  every 
such  scheme,  with  their  solicitors  and  engineers,  were  at  rest  in 
Paradise !"  The  impression  prevailed  among  the  rural  classes 
that  fox-covers  and  game-preserves  would  be  seriously  prejudiced 
by  the  formation  of  railroads ;  that  agricultural  communications 
would  be  destroyed,  land  thrown  out  of  cultivation,  land-owners 


342  OPPOSITION  OF  THE  LARGE  TOWNS  [PART  II. 

and  farmers  reduced  to  beggary,  the  poor-rates  increased  through 
the  number  of  persons  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the  rail- 
ways, and  all  this  in  order  that  Liverpool,  Manchester,  and  Bir- 
mingham shop-keepers  and  manufacturers  might  establish  a  mon- 
strous monopoly  in  railway  traffic. 

The  inhabitants  of  even  some  of  the  large  towns  were  thrown 
into  a  state  of  consternation  by  the  proposal  to  provide  them  with 
the  accommodation  of  a  railway.  The  line  from  London  to  Bir- 
mingham would  naturally  have  passed  close  to  the  handsome 
town  of  Northampton,  and  was  so  projected.  But  the  inhabitants 
of  the  place,  urged  on  by  the  local  press,  and  excited  by  men  of 
influence  and  education,  opposed  the  project,  and  succeeded  in 
forcing  the  promoters,  in  their  survey  of  the  line,  to  pass  the  town 
at  a  distance.  The  necessity  was  thus  involved  of  distorting  the 
line,  by  which  the  enormous  expense  of  constructing  the  Kilsby 
Tunnel  was  incurred.  Not  many  years  elapsed  before  the  inhab- 
itants of  Northampton  became  clamorous  for  railway  accommo- 
dation, and  a  special  branch  was  constructed  for  them.  The  ad- 
ditional cost  involved  by  this  forced  deviation  of  the  line  could 
not  have  amounted  to  less  than  half  a  million  sterling ;  the  loss 
falling,  not  upon  the  shareholders  only,  but  upon  the  public. 

Other  towns  in  the  south  followed  the  example  of  Northamp- 
ton in  howling  down  the  railways.  When  the  first  railway 
through  Kent  was  projected,  the  line  was  laid  out  so  as  to  pass 
by  Maidstone,  the  county  town.  But  it  had  not  a  single  supporter 
among  the  townspeople,  while  the  land-owners  for  many  miles 
round  continued  to  oppose  it.  A  few  years  later  the  Maidstone 
burgesses,  like  those  of  Northampton,  became  clamorous  for  a 
railway,  and  a  branch  was  formed  for  their  accommodation.  In 
like  manner,  the  London  and  Bristol  (afterward  the  Great  West- 
ern) Railway  was  vehemently  opposed  by  the  people  of  the  towns 
through  which  the  line  was  projected  to  pass;  and  when  the  bill 
was  thrown  out  by  the  Lords — after  £30,000  had  been  expended 
by  the  promoters — the  inhabitants  of  Eton  assembled,  under  the 
presidency  of  the  Marquis  of  Chandos,  to  rejoice  and  congratu- 
late themselves  and  the  country  upon  its  defeat.  Eton,  however, 
has  now  the  convenience  of  two  railways  to  the  metropolis. 

During  the  time  that  the  works  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manches- 
ter line  were  in  progress,  our  engineer  was  consulted  respecting 


CHAP. XIII.]    LEICESTER  AND  SWANNINGTON  RAILWAY.        343 


a  short  railway  proposed  to  be  formed  between  Leicester  and 
Swannington,  for  the  purpose  of  opening  up  a  communication 
between  the  town  of  Leicester  and  the  coal-fields  in  the  western 

part  of  the  county.  Mr.  Ellis, 
the  projector  of  this  under- 
taking, had  some  difficulty  in 
getting  the  requisite  capital 
subscribed  for,  the  Leicester 
townspeople  who  had  money 
being  for  the  most  part  inter- 
ested in  canals.  George  Ste- 
phenson  was  invited  to  come 
upon  the  ground  and  survey 
the  line.  He  did  so,  and  then 
projector  told  him  of  the 


AP  OF  THE  LEICESTER  AND  SWAXNINGTON   BAILWAT. 


difficulty  he  had 
in  finding  sub- 
scribers to  the 
concern.  "  Give 
me  a  sheet,"  sai 
Stephenson,  "  and 
I  will  raise  the 
money  for  you  in 
Liverpool."  The 
engineer  was  as 
good  as  his  word, 
and  in  a  short 

time  the  sheet  was  returned  with  the  subscription  complete.  Mr. 
Stephenson  was  then  asked  to  undertake  the  office  of  engineer 
for  the  line,  but  his  answer  was  that  he  had  thirty  miles  of  rail- 
way in  hand,  which  was  enough  for  any  engineer  to  attend  to 
properly.  Was  there  any  person  he  could  recommend  ?  "  Well," 
said  he, "  I  think  my  son  Eobert  is  competent  to  undertake  the 
thing."  Would  Mr.  Stephenson  be  answerable  for  him  ?  "  Oh 
yes,  certainly."  And  Kobert  Stephenson,  at  twenty-seven  years 
of  age,  was  installed  engineer  of  the  line  accordingly. 

The  requisite  Parliamentary  powers  having  been  obtained, 
Robert  Stephenson  proceeded  with  the  construction  of  the  rail- 
way, about  sixteen  miles  in  length,  toward  the  end  of  1830.  The 
works  were  comparatively  easy,  excepting  at  the  Leicester  end, 
where  the  young  engineer  encountered  his  first  stiff  bit  of  tunnel- 
ing. The  line  passed  under  ground  for  a  mile  and  three  quar- 


344  SNIBSTON  ESTATE  PURCHASED.  [PART  II. 

ters,  and  500  yards  of  its  course  lay  through  loose  running  sand. 
The  presence  of  this  material  rendered  it  necessary  for  the  engi- 
neer, in  the  first  place,  to  construct  a  wooden  tunnel  to  support 
the  soil  while  the  brick-work  was  being  executed.  This  measure 
proved  sufficient,  and  the  whole  was  brought  to  a  successful  ter- 
mination within  a  reasonable  time.  While  the  works  were  in 
progress,  Robert  kept  up  a  regular  correspondence  with  his  father 
at  Liverpool,  consulting  him  on  all  points  in  which  his  greater  ex- 
perience was  likely  to  be  of  service.  Like  his  father,  Eobert  was 
very  observant,  and  always  ready  to  seize  opportunity  by  the  fore- 
lock. It  happened  that  the  estate  of  Snibston,  near  Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch,  was  advertised  for  sale,  and  the  young  engineer's  experi- 
ence as  a  coal-viewer  and  practical  geologist  suggested  to  his 
mind  that  coal  was  most  probably  to  be  found  underneath.  He 
communicated  his  views  to  his  father  on  the  subject.  The  estate 
lay  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  railway;  and  if  the 
conjecture  proved  correct,  the  finding  of  the  coal  must  necessa- 
rily prove  a  most  fortunate  circumstance  for  the  purchasers  of 
the  land.  He  accordingly  requested  his  father  to  come  over  to 
Snibston  and  look  at  the  property,  which  he  did ;  and  after  a 
careful  inspection  of  the  ground,  he  arrived  at  the  same  conclu- 
sion as  his  son. 

The  large  manufacturing  town  of  Leicester,  about  fourteen 
miles  distant,  had  up  to  that  time  been  exclusively  supplied  with 
coal  brought  by  canal  from  Derbyshire,  and  the  Stephensons  saw 
that  the  railway  under  construction  from  Swannington  to  Leices- 
ter would  furnish  a  ready  market  for  any  coals  which  might  be 
found  at  Snibston.  Having  induced  two  of  his  Liverpool  friends 
to  join  him  in  the  venture,  the  Snibston  estate  was  purchased  in 
1831,  and  shortly  after  Stephenson  removed  his  home  from  Liv- 
erpool to  Alton  Grange,  for  the  purpose  of  superintending  the 
sinking  of  the  pit. 

Sinking  operations  were  immediately  begun,  and  proceeded 
satisfactorily  until  the  old  enemy,  water,  burst  in  upon  the  work- 
men, and  threatened  to  drown  them  out.  But  by  means  of  effi- 
cient pumping-engines,  and  the  skillful  casing  of  the  shaft  with 
segments  of  cast  iron — a  process  called  "  tubbing,"*  which  Ste- 

*  Tubbing  is  now  adopted  in  many  cases  as  a  substitute  for  brick-walling.  The 
tubbing  consists  of  short  portions  of  cast-iron  cylinder  fixed  in  segments.  Each 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OPENS  OUT  THE  COAL.  345 

phenson  was  the  first  to  adopt  in  the  Midland  Counties — it  was 
eventually  made  water-tight,  and  the  sinking  proceeded.  When 
a  depth  of  166  feet  had  been  reached,  a  still  more  formidable 
difficulty  presented  itself — one  which  had  baffled  former  sinkers 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  deterred  them  from  farther  operations. 
This  was  a  remarkable  bed  of  whinstone  or  greenstone,  which  had 
originally  been  poured  out  as  a  sheet  of  burning  lava  over  the 
denuded  surface  of  the  coal  measures ;  indeed,  it  was  afterward 
found  that  it  had  turned  to  cinders  one  part  of  the  seam  of  coal 
with  which  it  had  come  in  contact.  The  appearance  of  this  bed 
of  solid  rock  was  so  unusual  a  circumstance  in  coal-mining  that 
some  experienced  sinkers  urged  Stephenson  to  proceed  no  far- 
ther, believing  the  occurrence  of  the  dike  at  that  point  to  be  alto- 
gether fatal  to  his  enterprise.  But,  with  his  faith  still  firm  in  the 
existence  of  coal  underneath,  he  fell  back  on  his  old  motto  of 
''  Persevere !"  He  determined  to  go  on  boring ;  and  down  through 
the  solid  rock  he  went  until,  twenty-two  feet  lower,  he  came  upon 
the  coal  measures.  In  the  mean  time,  however,  lest  the  boring 
at  that  point  should  prove  unsuccessful,  he  had  commenced  sink- 
ing another  pair  of  shafts  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  west  of  the 
u  fault,"  and,  after  about  nine  months'  labor,  he  reached  the  prin- 
cipal seam,  called  the  "  main  coal." 

The  works  were  then  opened  out  on  a  large  scale,  and  George 
Stephenson  had  the  pleasure  and  good  fortune  to  send  the  first 
train  of  main  coal  to  Leicester  by  railway.  The  price  was  imme- 
diately reduced  there  to  about  8s.  a  ton,  effecting  a  pecuniary 
saving  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  .town  of  about  £40,000  per  an- 
num, or  equivalent  to  the  whole  amount  then  collected  in  govern- 
ment taxes  and  local  rates,  besides  giving  an  impetus  to  the  man- 
ufacturing prosperity  of  the  place,  which  has  continued  to  the 
present  day.  The  correct  principles  upon  which  the  mining  op- 
erations at  Snibston  were  conducted  offered  a  salutary  example 
to  the  neighboring  colliery  owners.  The  numerous  improvements 
there  introduced  were  freely  exhibited  .to  all,  and  they  were  aft- 
erward reproduced  in  many  forms  all  over  the  Midland  Counties, 
greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  mining  interest. 

weighs  about  4i  cwt.,  is  about  three  or  four  feet  long,  and  about  three  eighths  of  an 
inch  thick.  These  pieces  are  fitted  closely  together,  length  under  length,  and  form 
an  impermeable  wall  along  the  sides  of  the  pit. 


346 


THE  SNIBSTON  WORK-PEOPLE. 


[PART  II. 


Nor  was  Mr,  Stephenson  less  attentive  to  the  comfort  and  well- 
being  of  those  immediately  dependent  upon  him — the  work-peo- 
ple of  the  Snibston  Colliery  and  their  families.  Unlike  many  of 
those  large  employers  who  have  "  sprung  from  the  ranks,"  he  was 
one  of  the  kindest  and  most  indulgent  of  masters.  He  would 
have  a  fair  day's  work  for  a  fair  day's  wages,  but  he  never  forgot 
that  the  employer  had  his  duties  as  well  as  his  rights.  First  of 
all,  he  attended  to  the  proper  home  accommodation  of  his  work- 
people. He  erected  a  village  of  comfortable  cottages,  each  pro- 
vided with  a  snug  little  garden.  He  was  also  instrumental  in 
erecting  a  church  adjacent  to  the  works,  as  well  as  Church  schools 
for  the  education  of  the  colliers'  children ;  and  with  that  broad 
catholicity  of  sentiment  which  distinguished  him,  he  farther  pro- 
vided a  chapel  and  a  school-house  for  the  use  of  the  Dissenting 
portion  of  the  colliers  and  their  families — an  example  of  benevo- 
lent liberality  which  was  not  without  a  salutary  influence  upon 
the  neighboring  employers. 


BTEPUENSON'S  IIOUSE  AT  ALTON  CHANGE. 


r .-  4',*/s>sS'?:& 


NEW   YORK.     HARPER    &    BROTHERS. 


CHAP.  XIV.]    LONDON  AND  BIRMINGHAM  RAILWAY.  349 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

EGBERT   STEPHENSON   CONSTRUCTS   THE   LONDON   AND   BIRMINGHAM 
BAILWAT. 

OF  the  numerous  extensive  projects  which  followed  close  upon 
the  completion  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line  and  the  lo- 
comotive triumph  at  Rainhill,  that  of  a  railway  between  London 
and  Birmingham  was  the  most  important.  The  scheme  origin- 
ated at  the  latter  place  in  1830.  Two  committees  were  formed, 
and  two  plans  were  proposed.  One  was  of  a  line  to  London  by 
way  of  Oxford,  and  the  other  by  way  of  Coventry.  The  object 
of  the  promoters  of  both  schemes  being  to  secure  the  advantages 
of  railway  communication  with  the  metropolis,  they  wisely  deter- 
mined to  combine  their  strength  to  secure  it.  They  resolved  to 
call  George  Stephenson  to  their  aid,  and  requested  him  to  advise 
them  as  to  the  two  schemes  which  were  before  them.  After  a 
careful  examination  of  the  country,  Stephenson  reported  in  favor 
of  the  Coventry  route.  The  Lancashire  gentlemen,  who  were 
the  principal  subscribers  to  the  project,  having  confidence  in  his 
judgment,  supported  his  decision,  and  the  line  recommended  by 
him  was  adopted  accordingly. 

At  the  meeting  of  gentlemen  held  at  Birmingham  to  determine 
upon  the  appointment  of  the  engineer  for  the  railway,  there  was 
a  strong  party  in  favor  of  associating  with  Stephenson  a  gentle- 
man with  whom  he  had  been  brought  into  serious  collision  in  the 
course  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  undertaking.  When  the 
offer  was  made  to  him  that  he  should  be  joint  engineer  with  the 
other,  he  requested  leave  to  retire  and  consider  the  proposal  with 
his  son.  The  two  walked  into  St.  Philip's  church-yard,  which  ad- 
joined the  place  of  meeting,  and  debated  the  proposal.  The  fa- 
ther was  in  favor  of  accepting  it.  His  straggle  heretofore  had 
been  so  hard  that  he  could  not  bear  the  idea  of  missing  so  prom- 
ising an  opportunity  of  professional  advancement.  But  the  son, 
foreseeing  the  jealousies  and  heartburnings  which  the  joint  engi- 


350  OPPOSITION  TO  THE  RAILWAY.  [PART  II. 

neership  would  most  probably  create,  recommended  his  father  to 
decline  the  connection.  George  adopted  the  suggestion,  and,  re- 
turning to  the  committee,  announced  to  them  his  decision,  on 
which  the  promoters  decided  to  appoint  him  the  engineer  of  the 
undertaking  in  conjunction  with  his  son. 

This  line,  like  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  was  very  strongly 
opposed,  especially  by  the  land-owners.  Numerous  pamphlets 
were  published,  calling  on  the  public  to  "beware  of  the  bubbles," 
and  holding  up  the  promoters  of  railways  to  ridicule.  They 
were  compared  to  St.  John  Long  and  similar  quacks,  and  pro- 
nounced fitter  for  Bedlam  than  to  be  left  at  large.  The  canal 
proprietors,  land-owners,  and  road  trustees  made  common  cause 
against  them.  The  failure  of  railways  was  confidently  predicted 
— indeed,  it  was  elaborately  attempted  to  be  proved  that  they  had 
failed ;  and  it  was  industriously  spread  abroad  that  the  locomo- 
tive engines,  having  been  found  useless  and  highly  dangerous  on 
the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line,  were  immediately  to  be  aban- 
doned in  favor  of  horses — a  rumor  which  the  directors  of  the 
company  thought  it  necessary  publicly  to  contradict. 

Public  meetings  were  held  in  all  the  counties  through  which 
the  line  would  pass  between  London  and  Birmingham,  at  which 
the  project  was  denounced,  and  strong  resolutions  against  it  were 
passed.  The  attempt  was  made  to  conciliate  the  landlords  by  ex- 
planations, but  all  such  efforts  proved  futile,  the  owners  of  near- 
ly seven  eighths  of  the  land  being  returned  as  dissentients.  "  I 
remember,"  said  Kobert  Stephenson,  describing  the  opposition, 
"  that  we  called  one  day  on  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  the  eminent  sur- 
geon, in  the  hope  of  overcoming  his  aversion  to  the  railway.  .  He 
was  one  of  our  most  inveterate  and  influential  opponents.  His 
country  house  at  Berkhampstead  was  situated  near  the  intended 
line,  which  passed  through  part  of  his  property.  We  found  a 
courtly,  fine-looking  old  gentleman,  of  very  stately  manners,  who 
received  us  kindly,  and  heard  all  we  had  to  say  in  favor  of  the 
project.  But  he  was  quite  inflexible  in  his  opposition  to  it.  No 
deviation  or  improvement  that  we  could  suggest  had  any  effect 
in  conciliating  him.  He  was  opposed  to  railways  generally, 
and  to  this  in  particular.  'Your  scheme,'  said  he,  'is  preposter- 
ous in  the  extreme.  It  is  of  so  extravagant  a  character  as  to  be 
positively  absurd.  Then  look  at  the  recklessness  of  your  proceed- 


CHAP.  XIV.]  OPPOSITION  TO  THE  SURVEY.  351 

ings !  You  are  proposing  to  cut  up  our  estates  in  all  directions 
for  the  purpose  of  making  an  unnecessary  road.  Do  you  think 
for  one  moment  of  the  destruction  of  property  involved  by  it  ? 
Why,  gentlemen,  if  this  sort  of  thing  be  permitted  to  go  on,  you 
will  in  a  very  few  years  destroy  the  noblesse  /'  We  left  the  hon- 
orable baronet  without  having  produced  the  slightest  effect  upon 
him,  excepting  perhaps,  it  might  be,  increased  exasperation  against 
our  scheme.  I  could  not  help  observing  to  my  companions  as 
we  left  the  house,  '  Well,  it  is  really  provoking  to  find  one  who 
has  been  made  a  "  Sir"  for  cutting  that  wen  out  of  George  the 
Fourth's  neck,  charging  us  with  contemplating  the  destruction  of 
the  noblesse  because  we  propose  to  confer  upon  him  the  benefits 
of  a  railroad.' " 

Such  being  the  opposition  of  the  owners  of  land,  it  was  with 
the  greatest  difficulty  that  an  accurate  survey  of  the  line  could 
be  made.  At  one  point  the  vigilance  of  the  land-owners  and 
their  servants  was  such  that  the  surveyors  were  effectually  pre- 
vented taking  the  levels  by  the  light  of  day,  and  it  was  only  at 
length  accomplished  at  night  by  means  of  dark  lanterns.  There 
was  one  clergyman,  who  made  such  alarming  demonstrations  of 
liis  opposition,  that  the  extraordinary  expedient  was  resorted  to 
of  surveying  his  property  during  the  time  he  was  engaged  in  the 
pulpit.  This  was  managed  by  having  a  strong  force  of  survey- 
ors in  readiness  to  commence  their  operations,  who  entered  the 
clergyman's  grounds  on  one  side  the  moment  they  saw  him  fair- 
ly off  them  on  the  other.  By  a  well-organized  and  systematic 
arrangement,  each  man  concluded  his  allotted  task  just  as  the 
reverend  gentleman  concluded  his  sermon ;  so  that,  before  he 
left  the  church,  the  deed  was  done,  and  the  sinners  had  all  de- 
camped. Similar  opposition  was  offered  at  many  other  points, 
but  ineffectually.  The  laborious  application  of  Kobert  Stephen- 
son  was  such  that,  in  examining  the  country  to  ascertain  the  best 
line,  he  walked  the  whole  distance  between  London  and  Bir- 
mingham upward  of  twenty  times. 

When  the  bill  went  before  the  committee  of  the  Commons  in 
1832,  a  formidable  array  of  evidence  was  produced.  All  the 
railway  experience  of  the  day  was  brought  to  bear  in  support  of 
the  measure,  and  all  that  interested  opposition  could  do  was  set 
in  motion  against  it.  The  necessity  for  an  improved  mode  of 


352  THE  BILL  LOST  AND  REVIVED.  [PART!!. 

communication  between  London  and  Birmingham  was  clearly 
demonstrated,  and  the  engineering  evidence  was  regarded  as 
quite  satisfactory.  Not  a  single  fact  was  proved  against  the  util- 
ity of  the  measure,  and  the  bill  passed  the  committee,  and  after- 
ward the  third  reading  in  the  Commons,  by  large  majorities. 

It  was  then  sent  to  the  Lords,  and  went  into  committee,  when 
a  similar  mass  of  testimony  was  again  gone  through.  But  scarce- 
ly had  the  proceedings  been  opened  when  it  became  clear  that 
the  fate  of  the  bill  had  been  determined  before  a  word  of  the  ev- 
idence had  been  heard.  At  that  time  the  committees  were  open 
to  all  peers ;  and  the  promoters  of  the  measure  found,  to  their 
dismay,  many  of  the  lords  who  were  avowed  opponents  of  the 
measure  as  land -owners,  sitting  as  judges  to  decide  its  fate. 
Their  principal  object  seemed  to  be  to  bring  the  proceedings  to 
a  termination  as  quickly  as  possible.  An  attempt  at  negotiation 
was  made  in  the  course  of  the  proceedings  in  committee,  but 
failed,  and  the  bill  was  thrown  out  on  the  motion  of  Earl  Brown- 
low,  one  of  Lady  Bridgewater's  trustees ;  but,  though  carried  by 
a  large  majority,  the  vote  was  far  from  unanimous. 

As  the  result  had  been  foreseen,  measures  were  taken  to  neu- 
tralize the  effect  of  this  decision  as  regarded  future  operations. 
Not  less  than  £32,000  had  been  expended  in  preliminary  and 
Parliamentary  expenses  up  to  this  stage ;  but  the  promoters  de- 
termined not  to  look  back,  and  forthwith  made  arrangements 
for  prosecuting  the  bill  in  a  future  session.  A  meeting  of  the 
friends  of  the  measure  was  held  in  London,  attended  by  mem- 
bers of  both  houses  of  Parliament  and  by  leading  bankers  and 
merchants,  when  a  series  of  resolutions  was  passed,  declaring  their 
conviction  of  the  necessity  for  the  railway,  and  deprecating  the 
opposition  by  which  it  had  been  encountered.  Lord  Wharncliffe, 
•who  had  acted  as  the  chairman  of  the  Lords'  Committee,  attribu- 
ted the  failure  of  the  bill  entirely  to  the  land-owners ;  and  Mr. 
Glyn  subsequently  declared  that  they  had  tried  to  smother  it  by 
the  high  price  which  they  demanded  for  their  property.  It  was 
determined  to  reintroduce  the  bill  in  the  following  session  (1833), 
and  measures  were  taken  to  prosecute  it  vigorously.  Strange  to 
say,  the  bill  on  this  occasion  passed  both  houses  silently  and  al- 
most without  opposition.  The  mystery  was  afterward  solved  by 
the  appearance  of  a  circular  issued  by  the  directors  of  the  com- 


CHAP.  XIV.]  THE  WORKS  BEGUN.  353 

pany,  in  which  it  was  stated  that  they  had  opened  negotiations 
with  the  most  influential  of  their  opponents ;  that  "  these  meas- 
ures had  been  successful  to  a  greater  extent  tljan  they  had  ven- 
tured to  anticipate ;  and  the  most  active  and  formidable  had 
been  conciliated."  An  instructive  commentary  on  the  mode  by 
which  these  noble  lords  and  influential  landed  proprietors  had 
been  "  conciliated"  was  found  in  the  simple  fact  that  the  estimate 
for  land  was  nearly  trebled,  and  that  the  owners  were  paid  about 
£750,000  for  what  had  been  originally  estimated  at  £250,000. 
The  total  expenses  of  carrying  the  bill  through  Parliament 
amounted  to  the  enormous  sum  of  £72,868. 

The  land-owners  having  been  thus  "  conciliated,"  the  promo- 
ters of  the  measure  were  at  length  permitted  to  proceed  with  the 
formation  of  their  great  highway.  Robert  Stephenson  was,  with 
his  father's  sanction,  appointed  engineer-in-chief  of  the  line,  at  a 
salary  of  £1500  a  year.  He  was  now  a  married  man,  having  be- 
come united  to  Miss  Frances  Sanderson  in  1829,  since  which  his 
home  had  been  at  Newcastle,  near  to  the  works  there ;  but,  on  re- 
ceiving his  new  appointment,  he  removed  with  his  wife  to  Lon- 
don, to  a  house  on  Haverstock  Hill,  where  he  resided  during  the 
execution  of  the  Birmingham  Railway. 

Steps  were  at  once  taken  to  proceed  with  the  working  survey, 
to  prepare  the  working  drawings,  and  arrange  for  the  prosecution 
of  the  undertaking.  Eighty  miles  of  the  line  were  shortly  under 
construction ;  the  works  were  let  (within  the  estimates)  to  con- 
tractors, who  were  necessarily,  for  the  most  part,  new  to  such 
work.  The  business  of  railway  construction  was  not  then  well 
understood.  There  were  no  leviathans  among  contractors  as 
now,  able  to  undertake  the  formation  of  a  line  of  railway  hun- 
dreds of  miles  in  length ;  they  were,  for  the  most  part,  men  of 
small  capital  and  slender  experience.  Their  tools  and  machinery 
were  imperfect;  they  did  not  understand  the  economy  of  time 
and  piece  labor ;  the  workmen,  as  well  as  their  masters,  had  still 
to  learn  their  trade ;  and  every  movement  of  an  engineer  was  at- 
tended with  outlays,  which  were  the  inevitable  result  of  a  new 
system  of  things,  but  which  each  succeeding  day's  experience 
tended  to  diminish. 

The  difficulties  encountered  in  the  construction  of  this  railway 
were  thus  very  great,  the  most  formidable  of  them  originating  in 


354 


DIFFICULTIES. 


the  character  of  the  works  themselves.  Ex- 
tensive tunnels  had  to  be  driven  through  un- 
known strata,  and  miles  of  underground  ex- 
cavation had  to  be  carried  out  in  order  to 
form  a  level  road  from  valley  to  valley  under 
the  intervening  ridges.  This  kind  of  work 
was  the  newest  of  all  to  the  contractors  of 
that  day.  Kobert  Stephenson's  experience  in 
the  collieries  of  the  North  rendered  him  well 
fitted  to  grapple  with  such  difficulties-;  yet 
even  he,  with  all  his  practical  knowledge, 
could  scarcely  have  foreseen  the  serious  ob- 
stacles which  he  was  called  upon  to  encoun- 
ter in  executing  the  formidable  cuttings,  em- 
bankments, and  tunnels  of  the  London  and 
Birmingham  Railway.  It  would  be  an  un- 
interesting, as  it  would  be  a  fruitless  task,  to 
attempt  to  describe  these  works  in  detail; 
but  a  general  outline  of  their  extraordinary 
character  and  extent  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

The  length  of  railway  to  be  constructed 
between  London  and  Birmingham  was  112^ 
miles.  The  line  crossed  a  series  of  low-lying 
districts,  separated  from  each  other  by  con- 
siderable ridges  of  hills,  and  it  was  the  object 
of  the  engineer  to  cross  the  valleys  at  as  high 
an  elevation,  and  the  hills  at  as  low  a  one  as 
possible.  The  high  ground  was  therefore  cut 
down,  and  the  "  stuff"  led  into  embankments, 
in  some  places  of  great  height  and  extent,  so 
as  to  form  a  road  upon  as  level  a  plane  as 
was  considered  practicable  for  the  working 
of  the  locomotive  engine.  In  some  places 
the  high  grounds  were  passed  in  open  cut- 
tings, while  in  others  it  was  necessary  to  bore 
through  them  in  tunnels  with  deep  cuttings 
at  either  end. 

The  most  formidable  excavations  on  the 
line  are  those  at  Tring,  Denbigh  Hall,  and 


\ 


CHAP. XIV.]         THING  AND  BLISWORTH  CUTTING.  355 

Ellsworth.  The  Tring  cutting  is  an  immense  chasm  across  the 
great  chalk  ridge  of  Ivinghoe.  It  is  two  miles  and  a  half  long, 
and  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile  is  fifty-seven  feet  deep.  A  million 
and  a  half  cubic  yards  of  chalk  and  earth  were  taken  out  of  this 
cutting  by  means  of  horse-runs,  and  deposited  in  spoil-banks,  be- 
sides the  immense  quantity  run  into  the  embankment  north  of 
the  cutting,  forming  a  solid  mound  nearly  six  miles  long  and 
about  thirty  feet  high.  Passing  over  the  Denbigh  Hall  cutting, 
and  the  Wolverton  embankment  of  a  mile  and  a  half  in  length 
across  the  valley  of  the  Ouse,  we  come  to  the  excavation  at  Blis- 
worth,  a  brief  description  of  which  will  give  the  reader  an  idea 
of  one  of  the  most  formidable  kinds  of  railway  work. 

The  Blisworth  Cutting  is  a  mile  and  a  half  long,  in  some  places 


BLISWOBTU  CUTTING.    [By  Percival  Skelton.] 


sixty-five  feet  deep,  passing  through  earth,  stiff  clay,  and  hard 
rock.  Not  less  than  a  million  cubic  yards  of  these  materials 
were  dug,  quarried,  and  blasted  out  of  it.  One  third  of  the  cut- 
ting was  stone,  and  beneath  the  stone  lay  a  thick  bed  of  clay,  un- 
der which  were  found  beds  of  loose  shale  so  full  of  water  that 
almost  constant  pumping  was  necessary  at  many  points  to  enable 

Z 


356  PRIMROSE  HILL  TUNNEL.  [PART  H. 

the  works  to  proceed.  For  a  year  and  a  half  the  contractor  went 
on  fruitlessly  contending  with  these  difficulties,  and  at  length  he 
was  compelled  to  abandon  the  adventure.  The  engineer  then 
took  the  works  in  hand  for  the  company,  and  they  were  vigor- 
ously proceeded  with.  Steam-engines  were  set  to  work  to  pump 
out  the  water ;  two  locomotives  were  put  on,  one  at  either  end  of 
the  cutting,  to  drag  away  the  excavated  rock  and  clay ;  and  eight 
hundred  men  and  boys  were  employed  along  the  work,  in  dig- 
ging, wheeling,  and  blasting,  besides  a  large  number  of  horses. 
Some  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  blasting  operations  may  be  formed 
from  the  fact  that  twenty-five  barrels  of  gunpowder  were  exploded 
weekly,  the  total  quantity  used  in  forming  this  one  excavation 
being  about  three  thousand  barrels.  Considerable  difficulty  was 
experienced  in  supporting  the  bed  of  rock  cut  through,  which 
overlaid  the  clay  and  shale  along  either  side  of  the  cutting.  It 
was  found  necessary  to  hold  it  up  by  strong  retaining  walls,  to 
prevent  the  clay  bed  from  bulging  out,  and  these  walls  were  far- 
ther supported  by  a  strong  invert — that  is,  an  arch  placed  in  an 
inverted  position  under  the  road — thus  binding  together  the  walls 
on  both  sides.  Behind  the  retaining  walls,  a  drift  or  horizontal 
drain  was  run  to  enable  the  water  to  escape,  and  occasional  open- 
ings were  left  in  the  walls  themselves  for  the  same  purpose.  The 
work  was  at  length  brought  to  a  successful  completion,  but  the 
extraordinary  difficulties  encountered  in  executing  the  undertak- 
ing had  the  effect  of  greatly  increasing  the  cost  of  this  portion  of 
the  railway. 

The  Tunnels  on  the  line  are  eight  in  number,  their  total  length 
being  7336  yards.  The  first  high  ground  encountered  was  Prim- 
rose Hill,  where  the  stiff  London  clay  was  passed  through  for  a 
distance  of  about  1164  yards.  The  clay  was  close,  compact,  and 
dry,  more  difficult  to  work  than  stone  itself.  It  was  entirely  free 
from  water ;  but  the  absorbing  properties  of  the  clay  were  sucli 
that  when  exposed  to  the  air  it  swelled  out  rapidly.  Hence  an 
unusual  thickness  of  brick  lining  was  found  necessary ;  and  the 
engineer  afterward  informed  the  author  that  for  some  time  he 
entertained  an  apprehension  lest  the  pressure  should  force  in  the 
brick-work  altogether,  as  afterward  happened  in  the  case  of  the 
short  Preston  Brook  tunnel  upon  the  Grand  Junction  Railway, 
constructed  by  his  father.  The  pressure  behind  the  brick-work 


CHAP.  XIV.] 


KILSBY  TUNNEL. 


357 


was  so  great  that  it  made  the  face  of  the  bricks  to  fly  off  in  mi- 
nute chips,  which  covered  his  clothes  while  he  was  inspecting  the 
work.  The  materials  used  in  the  building  were,  however,  of  ex- 
cellent quality,  and  the  work  was  happily  brought  to  a  completion 
without  accident. 

At  Watford  the  chalk  ridge  was  penetrated  by  a  tunnel  about 
1800  yards  long,  and  at  Northclmrch,  Lindslade,  and  Stowe  Hill 
there  were  other  tunnels  of  minor  extent.  But  the  chief  diffi- 
culty of  the  undertaking  was  the  execution  of  that  under  the 
Kilsby  ridge.  Though  not  the  largest,  this  is  in  many  respects 
one  of  the  most  interesting  works  of  the  kind.  It  is  about  two 
thousand  four  hundred  yards  long,  and  runs  at  an  average  depth 
of  about  a  hundred  and  sixty  feet  below  the  surface.  The  ridge 
under  which  it  extends  is  of  considerable  extent,  the  famous  bat- 
tle of  Naseby  having  been  fought  upon  one  of  the  spurs  of  the 
same  high  ground,  about  seven  miles  to  the  eastward. 

Previous  to  the  letting  of  the  contract,  the  character  of  the  un- 
derground soil  was  fairly  tested  by  trial  shafts,  which  indicated 
that  it  consisted  of  shale  of  the  lower  oolite,  and  the  works  were 


LIKE  OF  THE  SHAFTS  OVER  KILSBY  TUNNEL.    [By  Percival  Skelton.] 


358  THE  WORKMEN  "DROWNED  OUT."  [PART  n. 

let  accordingly.  But  they  had  scarcely  been  commenced  when 
it  was  discovered  that,  at  an  interval  between  the  two  trial-shafts, 
which  had  been  sunk  about  two  hundred  yards  from  the  south 
end  of  the  tunnel,  there  existed  an  extensive  quicksand  under  a 
bed  of  clay  forty  feet  thick,  which  the  borings  had  escaped  in  the 
most  singular  manner.  At  the  bottom  of  one  of  these  shafts,  the 
excavation  and  building  of  the  tunnel  were  proceeding,  when  the 
roof  at  one  part  suddenly  gave  way,  a  deluge  of  water  burst  in, 
and  the  party  of  workmen  with  the  utmost  difficulty  escaped  with 
their  lives.  They  were  only  saved  by  means  of  a  raft,  on  which 
they  were  towed  by  one  of  the  engineers  swimming  with  the  rope 
in  his  mouth  to  the  lower  end  of  the  shaft,  out  of  which  they  were 
safely  lifted  to  the  daylight. 

The  works  were  of  course  at  that  point  immediately  stopped. 
The  contractor  who  had  undertaken  the  construction  of  the  tun- 
nel was  so  overwhelmed  by  the  calamity  that,  though  he  was  re- 
lieved by  the  company  from  his  engagement,  he  took  to  his  bed 
and  shortly  after  died.  Pumping-engines  were  erected  for  the 
purpose  of  draining  off  the  water,  but  for  a  long  time  it  prevailed, 
and  sometimes  even  rose  in  the  shaft.  The  question  arose  wheth- 
er, in  the  face  of  so  formidable  a  difficulty,  the  works  should  be 
proceeded  with  or  abandoned.  Robert  Stephenson  sent  over  to 
Alton  Grange  for  his  father,  and  the  two  took  serious  counsel  to- 
gether. George  was  in  favor  of  pumping  out  the  water  from  the 
"top  by  powerful  engines  erected  over  each  shaft,  until  the  water 
was  fairly  mastered.  Robert  concurred  in  that  view,  and,  al- 
though other  engineers  who  were  consulted  pronounced  strongly 
against  the  practicability  of  the  scheme  and  advised  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  enterprise,  the  directors  authorized  him  to  proceed, 
and  powerful  steam-engines  were  ordered  to  be  constructed  and 
delivered  without  loss  of  time. 

In  the  mean  time  Robert  suggested  to  his  father  the  expedi- 
ency of  running  a  drift  along  the  heading  from  the  south  end  of 
the  tunnel,  with  the  view  of  draining  off  the  water  in  that  way. 
George  said  he  thought  it  would  scarcely  answer,  but  that  it  was 
worth  a  trial,  at  all  events  until  the  pumping-engines  were  got 
ready.  Robert  accordingly  gave  orders  for  the  drift  to  be  pro- 
ceeded with.  The  excavators  were  immediately  set  to  work,  and 
they  had  nearly  reached  the  quicksand,  when  one  day,  while  the 


CHAP.  XIV.]  PUMPING  POWER  EMPLOYED.  359 

engineer,  his  assistants,  and  the  workmen  were  clustered  about 
the  open  entrance  of  the  drift-way,  they  heard  a  sudden  roar  as 
of  distant  thunder.  It  was  hoped  that  the  water  had  burst  in — 
for  all  the  workmen  were  out  of  the  drift — and  that  the  sand-bed 
would  now  drain  itself  off  in  a  natural  way.  Instead  of  which, 
very  little  water  made  its  appearance,  and  on  examining  the  in- 
ner end  of  the  drift,  it  was  found  that  the  loud  noise  had  been 
caused  by  the  sudden  discharge  into  it  of  an  immense  mass  of 
sand,  which  had  completely  choked  up  the  passage,  and  thus  pre- 
vented the  water  from  draining  off. 

The  engineer  now  found  that  nothing  remained  but  to  sink  nu- 
merous additional  shafts  over  the  line  of  the  tunnel  at  the  points 
at  which  it  crossed  the  quicksand,  and  endeavor  to  master  the  wa- 
ter by  sheer  force  of  engines  and  pumps.  The  engines,  which 
were  shortly  erected,  possessed  an  aggregate  power  of  160  horses; 
and  they  went  on  pumping  for  eight  months,  emptying  out  an  al- 
most incredible  quantity  of  water.  It  was  found  that  the  water, 
with  which  the  bed  of  sand  extending  over  many  miles  was 
charged,  was  in  a  great  degree  held  back  by  the  particles  of  the 
sand  itself,  and  that  it  could  only  percolate  through  at  a  certain 
average  rate.  It  appeared  in  its  flow  to  take  a  slanting  direction 
to  the  suction  of  the  pumps,  the  angle  of  inclination  depending 
upon  the  coarseness  or  fineness  of  the  sand,  and  regulating  the 
time  of  the  flow.  Hence  the  distribution  of  the  pumping  power 
at  short  intervals  along  the  line  of  the  tunnel  had  a  much  greater 
effect  than  the  concentration  of  that  power  at  any  one  place.  It 
soon  appeared  that  the  water  had  found  its  master.  Protected 
by  the  pumps,  which  cleared  a  space  for  engineering  operations 
— carried  on,  as  it  were,  amid  two  almost  perpendicular  walls  of 
water  and  sand  on  either  side — the  workmen  proceeded  with  the 
building  of  the  tunnel  at  numerous  points.  Every  exertion  was 
used  to  wall  in  the  dangerous  parts  as  quickly  as  possible,  the  ex- 
cavators and  bricklayers  laboring  night  and  day  until  the  work 
was  finished.  Even  while  under  the  protection  of  the  immense 
pumping  power  above  described,  it  often  happened  that  the  bricks 
were  scarcely  covered  with  cement  ready  for  the  setting  ere  they 
were  washed  quite  clean  by  the  streams  of  water  which  poured 
from  overhead.  The  men  were  accordingly  under  the  necessity 
of  holding  over  their  work  large  wliisks  of  straw  and  other 


360  WATER  RAISED.— RUIN  OF  CONTRACTORS.      [PART  II. 

appliances  to  protect  the  bricks  and  cement  at  the  moment  of 
setting. 

The  quantity  of  water  pumped  out  of  the  sand-bed  during 
eight  months  of  this  incessant  pumping  averaged  two  thousand 
gallons  per  minute,  raised  from  an  average  depth  of  120  feet.  It 
is  difficult  to  form  an  adequate  idea  of  the  bulk  of  water  thus 
raised,  but  it  may  be  stated  that  if  allowed  to  flow  for  three  hours 
only,  it  would  fill  a  lake  one  acre  square  to  the  depth  of  one  foot, 
and  if  allowed  to  flow  for  an  entire  day  it  would  fill  the  lake  to 
over  eight  feet  in  depth,  or  sufficient  to  float  a  vessel  of  a  hun- 
dred tons'  burden.  The  water  pumped  out  of  the  tunnel  while 
the  work  was  in  progress  would  be  nearly  equivalent  to  the  con- 
tents of  the  Thames  at  high  water  between  London  and  Wool- 
wich. It  is  a  curious  circumstance,  that  notwithstanding  the 
quantity  of  water  thus  removed,  the  level  of  the  surface  in  the 
tunnel  was  only  lowered  about  two  and  a  half  to  three  inches 
per  week,  showing  the  vast  area  of  the  quicksand,  which  probably 
extended  along  the  entire  ridge  of  land  under  which  the  railway 


The  cost  of  the  line  was  greatly  increased  by  the  difficulties 
thus  encountered  at  Kilsby.  The  original  estimate  for  the  tun- 
nel was  only  £99,000 ;  but  by  the  time  it  was  finished  it  had  cost 
about  £100  per  lineal  yard  forward,  or  a  total  of  nearly  £300,000. 
The  expenditure  on  the  other  parts  of  the  line  also  greatly  ex- 
ceeded the  amount  first  set  down  by  the  engineer,  and,  before  the 
railway  was  complete,  it  had  been  more  than  doubled.  The  land 
cost  three  times  more  than  the  estimate,  and  the  claims  for  com- 
pensation were  enormous.  Although  the  contracts  were  let  with- 
in the  estimates,  very  few  of  the  contractors  were  able  to  finish 
them  without  the  assistance  of  the  company,  and  many  became 
bankrupt.  Speaking  of  the  difficulties  encountered  during  the 
construction  of  the  line,Kobert  Stephenson  subsequently  observed 
to  us :  "  After  the  works  were  let,  wages  rose,  the  prices  of  mate- 
rials of  all  kinds  rose,  and  the  contractors,  many  of  whom  were 
men  of  comparatively  small  capital,  were  thrown  on  their  beam- 
ends.  Their  calculations  as  to  expenses  and  profits  were  com- 
pletely upset.  Let  me  just  go  over  the  list.  There  was  Jackson, 
who  took  the  Primrose  Hill  contract — he  failed.  Then  there 
was  the  next  length  —  Xowells ;  then  Copeland  and  Harding; 


CHAP.  XIV.]  MAGNITUDE  OF  THE  WORKS.  361 

north  of  them  Townsend,  who  had  the  Tring  cutting ;  next  Nor- 
ris,  who  had  Stoke  Hammond ;  then  Soars ;  then  Hughes :  I  think 
all  of  these  broke  down,  or  at  least  were  helped  through  by  the 
directors.  Then  there  was  that  terrible  contract  of  the  Kilsby 
Tunnel,  which  broke  the  Nowells,  and  killed  one  of  them.  The 
contractors  to  the  north  of  Kilsby  were  more  fortunate,  though 
some  of  them  pulled  through  only  with  the  greatest  difficulty. 
Of  the  eighteen  contracts  in  which  the  line  was  originally  let, 
only  seven  were  completed  by  the  original  contractors.  Eleven 
firms  were  ruined  by  their  contracts,  which  were  relet  to  others 
at  advanced  prices,  or  were  carried  on  and  finished  by  the  com- 
pany. The  principal  cause  of  increase  in  the  expense,  however, 
was  the  enlargement  of  the  stations.  It  appeared  that  we  had 
greatly  under -estimated  the  traffic,  and  it  accordingly  became 
necessary  to  spend  more  and  more  money  for  its  accommodation, 
until  I  think  I  am  within  the  mark  when  I  say  that  the  expendi- 
ture on  this  account  alone  exceeded  by  eight  or  ten  fold  the 
amount  of  the  Parliamentary  estimate." 

The  magnitude  of  the  works,  which  were  unprecedented  in 
England,  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  in  the  under- 
taking. The  following  striking  comparison  has  been  made  be- 
tween this  railway  and  one  of  the  greatest  works  of  ancient  times. 
The  great  Pyramid  of  Egypt  was,  according  to  Diodorus  Siculus, 
constructed  by  three  hundred  thousand — according  to  Herodotus, 
by  one  hundred  thousand — men.  It  required  for  its  execution 
twenty  years,  and  the  labor  expended  upon  it  has  been  estimated 
as  equivalent  to  lifting  15,733,000,000  of  cubic  feet  of  stone  one 
foot  high ;  whereas,  if  the  labor  expended  in  constructing  the 
London  and  Birmingham  Eailway  be  in  like  manner  reduced  to 
one  common  denomination,  the  result  is  25,000,000,000  of  cubic 
feet  more  than  was  lifted  for  the  Great  Pyramid ;  and  yet  the 
English  work  was  performed  by  about  20,000  men  in  less  than 
five  years.  And  while  the  Egyptian  work  was  executed  by  a 
powerful  monarch  concentrating  upon  it  the  labor  and  capital  of 
a  great  nation,  the  English  railway  was  constructed,  in  the  face 
of  every  conceivable  obstruction  and  difficulty,  by  a  company  of 
private  individuals  out  of  their  own  resources,  without  the  aid  of 
government  or  the  contribution  of  one  farthing  of  public  money. 

The  laborers  who  executed  these  formidable  works  were  in 


362  THE  RAIL  WA  Y  NA  VVIES.  [PAET  H. 

many  respects  a  remarkable  class.  The  "  railway  navvies,"*  as 
they  were  called,  were  men  drawn  by  the  attraction  of  good 
wages  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom ;  and  they  were  ready  for 
any  sort  of  hard  work.  Many  of  the  laborers  employed  on  the 
Liverpool  line  were  Irish ;  others  were  from  the  Northumberland 
and  Durham  railways,  where  they  had  been  accustomed  to  simi- 
lar work ;  and  some  of  the  best  came  from  the  fen  districts  of 
Lincoln  and  Cambridge,  where  they  had  been  trained  to  execute 
works  of  excavation  and  embankment.  These  old  practitioners 
formed  a  nucleus  of  skilled  manipulation  and  aptitude  which 
rendered  them  of  indispensable  utility  in  the  immense  undertak- 
ings of  the  period.  Their  expertness  in  all  sorts  of  earth-work, 
in  embanking,  boring,  and  well-sinking — their  practical  knowl- 
edge of  the  nature  of  soils  and  rocks,  the  tenacity  of  clays,  and 
the  porosity  of  certain  stratifications — were  very  great;  and, 
rough-looking  as  they  were,  many  of  them  were  as  important  in 
their  own  department  as  the  contractor  or  the  engineer. 

During  the  railway-making  period  the  navvy  wandered  about 
from  one  public  work  to  another,  apparently  belonging  to  no 
country  and  having  no  home.  He  usually  wore  a  white  felt  hat 
with  the  brim  turned  up,  a  velveteen  or  jean  square-tailed  coat,  a 
scarlet  plush  waistcoat  with  little  black  spots,  and  a  bright-color- 
ed kerchief  round  his  Herculean  neck,  when,  as  often  happened, 
it  was  not  left  entirely  bare.  His  corduroy  breeches  were  re- 
tained in  position  by  a  leathern  strap  round  the  waist,  and  were 
tied  and  buttoned  at  the  knee,  displaying  beneath  a  solid  calf  and 
foot  incased  in  strong  high-laced  boots.  Joining  together  in  a 
"  butty  gang,"  some  ten  or  twelve  of  these  men  would  take  a  con- 
tract to  cut  out  and  remove  so  much  "dirt" — as  they  denomi- 
nated earth-cutting — fixing  their  price  according  to  the  character 
of  the  "  stuff,"  and  the  distance  to  which  it  had  to  be  wheeled 
and  tipped.  The  contract  taken,  every  man  put  himself  to  his 
mettle ;  if  any  was  found  skulking,  or  not  putting  forth  his  full 
working  power,  he  was  ejected  from  the  gang.  Their  powers 
of  endurance  were  extraordinary.  In  times  of  emergency  they 
would  work  for  twelve  and  even  sixteen  hours,  witli  only  short 

*  The  word  "nawie,"or  "navigator,"  is  supposed  to  have  originated  in  the  fact 
of  many  of  these  laborers  having  been  originally  employed  in  making  the  navigations. 
or  canals,  the  construction  of  which  immediately  preceded  the  railway  era. 


CHAP.  XIV.]  THE  RAIL  WA  Y  NA  VVTES.  363 

intervals  for  meals.  The  quantity  of  flesh-meat  which  they  con- 
sumed was  something  enormous ;  but  it  was  to  their  bones  and 
muscles  what  coke  is  to  the  locomotive — the  means  of  keeping 
up  the  steam.  They  displayed  great  pluck,  and  seemed  to  disre- 
gard peril.  Indeed,  the  most  dangerous  sort  of  labor — such  as 
working  horse-barrow  runs,  in  which  accidents  are  of  constant 
occurrence — has  always  been  most  in  request  among  them,  the 
danger  seeming  to  be  one  of  its  chief  recommendations. 


TCNireu    [North  End.] 


Working  together,  eating,  drinking,  and  sleeping  together,  and 
daily  exposed  to  the  same  influences,  these  railway  laborers  soon 
presented  a  distinct  and  well-defined  character,  strongly  marking 
them  from  the  population  of  the  districts  in  which  they  labored. 
Reckless  alike  of  their  lives  as  of  their  earnings,  the  navvies 
worked  hard  and  lived  hard.  For  their  lodging,  a  hut  of  turf 
would  content  them ;  and,  in  their  hours  of  leisure,  the  meanest 
public  house  would  serve  for  their  parlor.  Unburdened,  as  they 
usually  were,  by  domestic  ties,  unsoftened  by  family  affection, 
and  without  much  moral  or  religious  training,  the  navvies  came 


364:  THE  RAIL  WA  Y  NA  VVIES.  [PART  II. 

to  be  distinguished  by  a  sort  of  savage  manners,  which  contrast- 
ed strangely  with  those  of  the  surrounding  population.  Yet,  ig- 
norant and  violent  though  they  might  be,  they  were  usually  good- 
hearted  fellows  in  the  main — frank  and  open-handed  with  their 
comrades,  and  ready  to  share  their  last  penny  with  those  in  dis- 
tress. Their  pay-nights  were  often  a  saturnalia  of  riot  and  dis- 
order, dreaded  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  villages  along  the  line 
of  works.  The  irruption  of  such  men  into  the  quiet  hamlet  of 
Kilsby  must,  indeed,  have  produced  a  very  startling  effect  on  the 
recluse  inhabitants  of  the  place.  Robert  Stephenson  used  to  tell 
a  story  of  the  clergyman  of  the  parish  waiting  upon  the  foreman 
of  one  of  the  gangs  to  expostulate  with  him  as  to  the  shocking 
impropriety  of  his  men  working  during  Sunday.  But  the  head 
navvy  merely  hitched  up  his  trowsers  and  said, "  Why,  Soondays 
hain't  cropt  out  here  yet !"  In  short,  the  navvies  were  little  bet- 
ter than  heathens,  and  the  village  of  Kilsby  was  not  restored  to 
its  wonted  quiet  until  the  tunnel-works  were  finished,  and  the  en- 
gines and  scaffolding  removed,  leaving  only  the  immense  masses 
of  debris  around  the  line  of  shafts  which  extend  along  the  top 
of  the  tunnel. 


CHAP.  XV.]  RAILROADS  POPULAR.— GRAND  JUNCTION  LINE.  365 


CHAPTEK  XV. 

MANCHESTER   AND   LEEDS,  AND   MIDLAND   RAILWAYS —  STEPHENSON's 

LIFE   AT   ALTON  —  VISIT    TO    BELGIUM GENERAL    EXTENSION    OF 

RAILWAYS  AND   THEIR   RESULTS. 

THE  rapidity  with  which  railways  were  carried  out,  when  the 
spirit  of  the  country  became  roused,  was  indeed  remarkable. 
This  was  doubtless  in  some  measure  owing  to  the  increased  force 
of  the  current  of  speculation  at  the  time,  but  chiefly  to  the  desire 
which  the  public  began  to  entertain  for  the  general  extension  of 
the  system.  It  was  even  proposed  to  fill  up  the  canals  and  con- 
vert them  into  railways.  The  new  roads  became  the  topic  of 
conversation  in  all  circles ;  they  were  felt  to  give  a  new  value  to 
time ;  their  vast  capabilities  for  "  business"  peculiarly  recom- 
mended them  to  the  trading  classes,  while  the  friends  of  "  prog- 
ress" dilated  on  the  great  benefits  they  would  eventually  confer 
upon  mankind  at  large.  It  began  to  be  seen  that  Edward  Pease 
had  not  been  exaggerating  when  he  said, "  Let  the  country  but 
make  the  railroads,  and  the  railroads  will  make  the  country !" 
They  also  came  to  be  regarded  as  inviting  objects  of  investment 
to  the  thrifty,  and  a  safe  outlet  for  the  accumulations  of  inert 
men  of  capital.  Thus  new  avenues  of  iron  road  were  soon  in 
course  of  formation,  branching  in  all  directions,  so  that  the  coun- 
try promised  in  a  wonderfully  short  space  of  time  to  become 
wrapped  in  one  vast  network  of  iron. 

In  1836  the  Grand  Junction  Railway  was  under  construction 
between  Warrington  and  Birmingham — the  northern  part  by  Mr. 
Stephenson,  and  the  southern  by  Mr.  Rastrick.  The  works  on 
that  line  embraced  heavy  cuttings,  long  embankments,  and  nu- 
merous viaducts ;  but  none  of  these  are  worthy  of  any  special 
description.  Perhaps  the  finest  piece  of  masonry  on  the  railway 
is  the  Dutton  Yiaduct  across  the  valley  of  the  Weaver.  It  con- 
sists of  20  arches  of  60  feet  span,  springing  16  feet  from  the  per- 


366  MANCHESTER  AND  LEEDS  LINE.  [PART  II. 

pendicular  shaft  of  each  pier,  and  60  feet  in  height  from  the 
crown  of  the  arches  to  the  level  of  the  river.  The  foundations 
of  the  piers  were  built  on  piles  driven  20  feet  deep.  The  struc- 
ture has  a  solid  and  majestic  appearance,  and  is  perhaps  the  finest 
of  George  Stephenson's  viaducts. 


THE  IHJTTON  VIADUCT. 


The  Manchester  and  Leeds  line  was  in  progress  at  the  same 
time  —  an  important  railway  connecting  Yorkshire  and  Lanca- 
shire, passing  through  a  district  full  of  manufacturing  towns  and 
villages,  the  hives  of  population,  industry,  and  enterprise.  An 
attempt  was  made  to  obtain  the  act  as  early  as  the  year  1831 ; 
but  its  promoters  were  defeated  by  the  powerful  opposition  of 
the  land-owners,  aided  by  the  canal  companies,  and  the  project 
was  not  revived  for  several  years.  The  act  authorizing  the  con- 
struction of  the  line  was  obtained  in  1836 ;  it  was  amended  in 
the  following  year,  and  the  first  ground  was  broken  on  the  18th 
of  August,  1837. 

An  incident  occurred  while  .the  second  Manchester  and  Leeds 
Bill  was  before  the  Committee  of  the  Lords  which  is  worthy  of 
passing  notice  in  this  place,  as  illustrative  of  George  Stephenson's 
character.  The  line  which  was  authorized  by  Parliament  in  1836 
had  been  hastily  surveyed  within  a  period  of  less  than  six  weeks, 
but  before  it  received  the  royal  assent  the  engineer  became  con- 
vinced that  many  important  improvements  might  be  made  in  it, 


CHAP.  XV.]  SCENE  IN  COMMITTEE.  367 

and  he  communicated  his  views  to  the  directors.  They  deter- 
mined, however,  to  obtain  the  act,  although  conscious  at  the  time 
that  they  would  have  to  go  for  a  second  and  improved  line  in  the 
following  year.  The  second  bill  passed  the  Commons  in  1837 
without  difficulty,  and  was  expected  in  like  manner  to  pass  the 
Lords'  Committee.  Quite  unexpectedly,  however,  Lord  Wharn- 
cliffe,  who  was  interested  in  the  Manchester  and  Sheffield  line, 
which  passed  through  his  colliery  property  in  the  south  of  York- 
shire, conceiving  that  the  new  Manchester  and  Leeds  line  might 
have  some  damaging  effect  upon  it,  appeared  as  an  opponent  of 
the  bill.  Himself  a  member  of  the  committee,  he  adopted  the 
unusual  course  of  rising  to  his  feet,  and  making  a  set  speech 
against  the  measure  while  the  engineer  was  under  examination. 
He  alleged  that  the  act  obtained  in  the  preceding  session  was  one 
that  the  promoters  had  no  intention  of  carrying  out,  that  they 
had  only  secured  it  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  possession  of  the 
ground  and  reducing  the  number  of  the  opponents  to  their  pres- 
ent application,  and  that,  in  fact,  they  had  been  practicing  a  de- 
ception upon  the  House.  Then,  turning  full  round  upon  the  wit- 
ness, he  said,  "  I  ask  you,  sir,  do  you  call  that  conduct  honest  ?" 
Stephenson,  his  voice  trembling  with  emotion,  replied, "  Yes,  my 
lord,  I  do  call  it  honest.  And  I  will  ask  your  lordship,  whom  I 
served  for  many  years  as  your  engine-wright  at  the  Killingworth 
collieries,  did  you  ever  know  me  to  do  any  thing  that  was  not 
strictly  honorable  ?  You  know  what  the  collieries  were  when  I 
went  there,  and  you  know  what  they  were  when  I  left  them.  Did 
you  ever  hear  that  I  was  found  wanting  when  honest  services 
were  wanted,  or  when  duty  called  me?  Let  your  lordship  but 
fairly  consider  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  I  feel  persuaded 
you  will  admit  that  my  conduct  has  been  equally  honest  through- 
out in  this  matter."  He  then  briefly  but  clearly  stated  the  histo- 
ry of  the  application  to  Parliament  for  the  act,  which  was  so  sat- 
isfactory to  the  committee  that  they  passed  the  preamble  of  the 
bill  without  farther  objection  ;  and  Lord  Wharncliffe  requested 
that  the  committee  would  permit  his  observations  to  be  erased 
from  the  record  of  the  evidence,  which,  as  an  acknowledgment 
of  his  error,  was  allowed.  Lord  Kenyon  and  several  other  mem- 
bers of  the  committee  afterward  came  up  to  Mr.  Stephenson, 
shook  him  by  the  hand,  and  congratulated  him  on  the  manly  way 


SUMMIT  TUNNEL. 


[PART  II. 


in  which  he  had  vindicated  himself  from  the  aspersions  attempt- 
ed to  be  cast  upon  him. 

In  conducting  this  project  to  an  issue,  the  engineer  had  the 
usual  opposition  and  prejudices  to  encounter.  Predictions  were 
confidently  made  in  many  quarters  that  the  line  could  never  suc- 
ceed. It  was  declared  that  the  utmost  engineering  skill  could 
not  construct  a  railway  through  such  a  country  of  hills  and  hard 
rocks ;  and  it  was  maintained  that,  even  if  the  railway  were  prac- 
ticable, it  could  only  be  made  at  a  cost  altogether  ruinous. 

During  the  progress  of  the  works,  as  the  Summit  Tunnel  near 
Littleborough  was  approaching  completion,  the  rumor  was  spread 


ENTRANCE  TO  THE   SUMMIT  TUNNEL,  LITTLEBOBOUGH.      [By  Perdval  SfceltOn.J 


abroad  in  Manchester  that  the  tunnel  had  fallen  in  and  buried  a 
number  of  the  workmen.  The  last  arch  had  been  keyed  in,  and 
the  work  was  all  but  finished,  when  a  slight  accident  occurred 
which  was  thus  exaggerated  by  the  lying  tongue  of  rumor.  An 
invert  had  given  way  through  the  irregular  pressure  of  the  sur- 
rounding earth  and  rock  at  a  part  of  the  tunnel  where  a  "  fault" 
had  occurred  in  the  strata. 

A  party  of  the  directors  accompanied  the  engineer  to  inspect 
the  scene  of  the  accident.     They  entered  the  tunnel  mouth  pre- 


CHAP.  XV.]  SUMMIT  TUNNEL.  369 

ceded  by  upward  of  fifty  navvies,  each  bearing  a  torch.  After 
walking  a  distance  of  about  half  a  mile,  the  inspecting  party  ar- 
rived at  the  scene  of  the  "frightful  accident,"  about  which  so 
much  alarm  had  been  spread  abroad.  All  that  was  visible  was  a 
certain  unevenness  of  the  ground,  which  had  been  forced  up  by 
the  invert  under  it  giving  way ;  thus  the  ballast  had  been  loosened, 
the  drain  running  along  the  centre  of  the  road  had  been  displaced, 
and  small  pools  of  water  stood  about.  But  the  whole  of  the  walls 
and  the  roof  were  as  perfect  as  at  any  other  part  of  the  tunnel. 
The  engineer  explained  the  cause  of  the  accident ;  the  blue  shale, 


he  said,  through  which  ^ie  excavation  passed  at  that  point,  was 
considered  so  hard  and  firm  as  to  render  it  unnecessary  to  build 
the  invert  very  strong  there.  But  shale  is  always  a  deceptive  ma- 
terial. Subjected  to  the  influence  of  the  atmosphere,  it  gives  but 
a  treacherous  support.  In  this  case,  falling  away  like  quicklime, 
it  had  left  the  lip  of  the  invert  alone  to  support  the  pressure  of 
the  arch  above,  and  hence  its  springing  inward  and  upward. 
Stephenson  then  directed  the  attention  of  the  visitors  to  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  arch  overhead,  where  not  the  slightest  fracture 
or  yielding  could  be  detected.  Speaking  of  the  work  in  the 


370 


MIDLAND  RAILWAY. 


course  of  the  same  day,  he  said, "  I  will 
stake  my  character,  my  head,  if  that  tun- 
nel ever  give  way,  so  as  to  cause  dan- 
ger to  any  of  the  public  passing  through 
it.  Taking  it  as  a  whole,  I  don't  think 
there  is  another  such  a  piece  of  work 
in  the  world.  It  is  the  greatest  work 
that  has  yet  been  done  of  this  kind,  and 
there  has  been  less  repairing  than  is 
usual — though  an  engineer  might  well 
be  beaten  in  his  calculations,  for  he  can 
not  beforehand  see  into  those  little  frac- 
tured parts  of  the  earth  he  may  meet 
with."  As  Stephenson  had  promised, 
the  invert  was  put  in,  and  the  tunnel 
was  made  perfectly  safe. 

The  construction  of  this  subterranean 
road  employed  the  labor  of  above  a 
thousand  men  for  nearly  four  years. 
Besides  excavating  the  arch  out  of  the 
solid  rock,  they  used  23,000,000  of 
bricks  and  8000  tons  of  Koman  cement 
in  the  building  of  the  tunnel.  Thirteen 
stationary  engines,  and  about  100  horses, 
were  also  employed  in  drawing  the 
earth  and  stone  out  of  the  shafts.  Its 
entire  length  is  2869  yards,  or  nearly  a 
mile  and  three  quarters,  exceeding  the 
famous  Kilsby  Tunnel  by  471  yards. 

The  Midland  Kailway  was  a  favorite 
line  of  Mr.  Stephenson's  for  several  rea- 
sons. It  passed  through  a  rich  mining 
district,  in  which  it  opened  up  many 
valuable  coal-fields,  and  it  formed  part 
of  the  great  main  line  of  communica- 
tion between  London  and  Edinburg. 
The  line  was  originally  projected  by 
gentlemen  interested  in  the  London  and 
Birmingham  Kailway.  Their  intention 


CHAP.  XV.]       COMPARED  WITH  THE  SIMPLON  ROAD.  371 

was  to  extend  that  line  from  Rugby  to  Leeds ;  but,  finding  them- 
selves anticipated  in  part  by  the  projection  of  the  Midland  Coun- 
ties Railway  from  Rugby  to  Derby,  they  confined  themselves  to 
the  district  between  Derby  and  Leeds,  and  in  1835  a  company 
was  formed  to  construct  the  North  Midland  line,  with  George 
Stephenson  for  its  engineer.  The  act  was  obtained  in  1836,  and 
the  first  ground  was  broken  in  February,  1837. 

Although  the  Midland  Railway  was  only  one  of  the  many 
great  works  of  the  same  kind  executed  at  that  time,  it  was  al- 
most enough  of  itself  to  be  the  achievement  of  a  life.  Compare 
it,  for  example,  with  Napoleon's  military  road  over  the  Simplon, 
and  it  will  at  once  be  seen  how  greatly  it  excels  that  work,  not 
only  in  the  constructive  skill  displayed  in  it,  but  also  in  its  cost 
and  magnitude,  and  the  amount  of  labor  employed  in  its  forma- 
tion. The  road  of  the  Simplon  is  45  miles  in  length ;  the  North 
Midland  Railway  72£  miles.  The  former  has  50  bridges  and  5 
tunnels,  measuring  together  1338  feet  in  length ;  the  latter  has 
200  bridges  and  7  tunnels,  measuring  together  11,400  feet,  or 
about  2|  miles.  The  former  cost  about  £720,000  sterling,  the 
latter  above  £3,000,000.  Napoleon's  grand  military  road  was 
constructed  in  six  years,  at  the  public  cost  of  the  two  great  king- 
doms, of  France  and  Italy,  while  Stephenson's  railway  was  formed 
in  about  three  years  by  a  company  of  private  merchants  and 
capitalists  out  of  their  own  funds  and  under  their  own  superin- 
tendence. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  that  we  should  give  any  account  in  de- 
tail of  the  North  Midland  works.  The  making  of  one  tunnel  so 
much  resembles  the  making  of  another — the  building  of  bridges 
and  viaducts,  no  matter  how  extensive,  so  much  resembles  the 
building  of  others — the  cutting  out  of  "  dirt,"  the  blasting  of 
rocks,  and  the  wheeling  of  excavation  into  embankments,  is  so 
much  matter  of  mere  time  and  hard  work,  that  it  is  quite  unnec- 
essary to  detain  the  reader  by  any  attempt  at  their  description. 
Of  course  there  were  the  usual  difficulties  to  encounter  and  over- 
come, but  the  railway  engineer  regarded  these  as  mere  matters  of 
course,  and  would  probably  have  been  disappointed  if  they  had 
not  presented  themselves. 

On  the  Midland,  as  on  other  lines,  water  was  the  great  enemy 
to  be  fought  against — water  in  the  Clay-cross  and  other  tunnels — 
AA 


372 


MIDLAND  RAIL  WA  Y. 


water  in  the  boggy  or  sandy  foundations  of  bridges — and  water 
in  cuttings  and  embankments.  As  an  illustration  of  the  difficul- 
ties of  bridge  building, 
we  may  mention  the 
case  of  the  five-arch 
bridge  over  the  Der- 
went,  where  it  took  two 
years'  work,  night  and 
day,  to  get  in  the  foun- 
dations of  the  piers 
alone.  Another  curi- 
ous illustration  of  the 
mischief  done  by  wa- 
ter in  cuttings  may  be 
Briefly  mentioned.  At 
a  part  of  the  North 
Midland  line,  near  Am- 
bergate,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  pass  along  a 
hill-side  in  a  cutting 
a  few  yards  deep.  As 
the  cutting  proceeded, 
a  seam  of  shale  was 
cut  across,  lying  at  an 

inclination  of  6  to  1 ;  and  shortly  after,  the  water  getting  behind 
it,  the  whole  mass  of  earth  along  the  hill  above  began  to  move 
down  across  the  line  of  excavation.  The  accident  completely 
upset  the  estimates  of  the  contractor,  who,  instead  of  fifty  thou- 
sand cubic  yards,  found  that  he  had  about  five  hundred  thousand 
to  remove,  the  execution  of  this  part  of  the  railway  occupying 
fifteen  months  instead  of  two. 

The  Oakenshaw  cutting  near  Wakefield  was  also  of  a  very 
formidable  character.  About  six  hundred  thousand  yards  of 
rock  shale  and  bind  were  quarried  out  of  it,  and  led  to  form  the 
adjoining  Oakenshaw  embankment.  The  Normanton  cutting  was 
almost  as  heavy,  requiring  the  removal  of  four  hundred  thousand 
yards  of  the  same  kind  of  excavation  into  embankment  and  spoil. 
But  the  progress  of  the  works  on  the  line  was  so  rapid  during 
1839  that  no  less  than  450,000  cubic  yards  of  excavation  were  ac- 
complished per  month. 


LAND-BLIP  ON  NOBTH  MIDLAND  LINE,  NEAR  AMBEEGATE. 


MIDLAND  RAILWAY  WORKS.  373 


11UIX  BRIDGE,  IfEAB  AMBKBGATX. 


As  a  curiosity  in  construction,  we  may  also  mention  a  very 
delicate  piece  of  work  executed  on  the  same  railway  at  Bull 
Bridge  in  Derbyshire,  where  the  line  at  the  same  point  passes 
over  a  bridge  which  here  spans  the  Eiver  Amber,  and  under  the 
bed  of  the  Cromford  Canal.  Water,  bridge,  railway,  and  canal 
were  thus  piled  one  above  the  other,  four  stories  high.  In  order 
to  prevent  the  possibility  of  the  waters  of  the  canal  breaking  in 
upon  the  railway  works,  Stephenson  had  an  iron  trough  made,  150 
feet  long,  of  the  width  of  the  canal,  and  exactly  fitting  the  bot- 
tom. It  was  brought  to  the  spot  in  three  pieces,  which  were 
firmly  welded  together,  and  the  trough  was  then  floated  into  its 
place  and  sunk,  the  whole  operation  being  completed  without  in 
the  least  interfering  with  the  navigation  of  the  canal.  The  rail- 
way works  underneath  were  then  proceeded  with  and  finished. 

Another  line  of  the  same  series,  constructed  by  George  Ste- 
phenson, was  the  York  and  North  Midland,  extending  from  Nor- 
manton — a  point  on  the  Midland  Railway — to  York ;  but  it  was 
a  line  of  easy  formation,  traversing  a  comparatively  level  coun- 
try. The  inhabitants  of  Whitby,  as  well  as  York,  were  project- 
ing-a  railway  to  connect  these  towns  as  early  as  1832,  and  in  the 


374:  THE  YORK  AND  NORTH  MIDLAND.  [PART  II. 

year  following  Whitby  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  horse  line  of 
twenty-four  miles,  connecting  it  with  the  small  market-town  of 
Pickering.  The  York  citizens  were  more  ambitious,  and  agi- 
tated the  question  of  a  locomotive  line  to  connect  them  with  the 
town  of  Leeds.  Stephenson  recommended  them  to  connect  their 
line  with  the  Midland  at  Normanton,  and  they  adopted  his  ad- 
vice. The  company  was  formed,  the  shares  were  at  once  sub- 
scribed for,  the  act  was  obtained  in  the  following  year,  and  the 
works  were  constructed  without  difficulty. 

As  the  best  proof  of  his  conviction  that  the  York  and  North 
Midland  would  prove  a  good  investment,  Stephenson  invested  in 
it  a  considerable  portion  of  his  savings,  being  a  subscriber  for 
420  shares.  The  interest  taken  in  this  line  by  the  engineer  was 
on  more  than  one  occasion  specially  mentioned  by  Mr.  Hudson, 
then  Lord-mayor  of  York,  as  an  inducement  to  other  persons  of 
capital  to  join  the  undertaking ;  and  had  it  not  been  afterward 
encumbered  and  overlaid  by  comparatively  useless  and  profitless 
branches,  in  the  projection  of  which  Stephenson  had  no  part,  the 
sanguine  expectations  which  he  early  formed  of  the  paying  qual- 
ities of  that  railway  would  have  been  more  than  realized. 

There  was  one  branch,  however,  of  the  York  and  North  Mid- 
land Line  in  which  he  took  an  anxious  interest,  and  of  which  he 
may  be  said  to  have  been  the  projector — the  branch  to  Scar- 
borough, which  proved  one  of  the  most  profitable  parts  of  the 
railway.  He  was  so  satisfied  of  its  value,  that,  at  a  meeting  of 
the  York  and  North  Midland  proprietors,  he  volunteered  his  gra- 
tuitous services  as  engineer  until  the  company  was  formed,  in  ad- 
dition to  subscribing  largely  to  the  undertaking.  At  that  meet- 
ing he  took  an  opportunity  of  referring  to  the  charges  brought 
against  engineers  of  so  greatly  exceeding  the  estimates :  "He  had 
had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  making  out  the  estimate  of  the  North 
Midland  Railway,  and  he  believed  there  never  was  a  more  honest 
one.  He  had  always  endeavored  to  state  the  truth  as  far  as  was 
in  his  power.  He  had  known  a  contractor  who,  when  he  (Mr. 
Stephenson)  had  sent  in  an  estimate,  came  forward  and  said, '  I 
can  do  it  for  half  the  money.'  The  contractor's  estimate  went 
into  Parliament,  but  it  came  out  his.  He  could  go  through  the 
whole  list  of  the  undertakings  in  which  he  had  been  engaged,  and 
show  that  he  had  never  had  any  thing  to  do  with  stock- jobfoing 


CHAP. XV.]  QUICKNESS  OF  OBSERVATION.  375 

concerns.  He  would  say  that  he  would  not  be  concerned  in  any 
scheme  unless  he  was  satisfied  that  it  would  pay  the  proprietors ; 
and  in  bringing  forward  the  proposed  line  to  Scarborough,  he 
was  satisfied  that  it  would  pay,  or  he  would  have  had  nothing  to 
do  with  it." 

During  the  time  that  our  engineer  was  engaged  in  superintend- 
ing the  execution  of  these  undertakings,  he  was  occupied  upon 
other  projected  railways  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  He 
surveyed  several  lines  in  the  neighborhood  of  Glasgow,  and  aft- 
erward alternate  routes  along  the  east  coast  from  Newcastle  to 
Edinburg,  with  the  view  of  completing  the  main  line  of  commu- 
nication with  London.  When  out  on  foot  in  the  field  on  these 
occasions,  he  was  ever  foremost  in  the  march,  and  he  delighted 
to  test  the  prowess  of  his  companions  by  a  good  jump  at  any 
hedge  or  ditch  that  lay  in  their  way.  His  companions  used  to 
remark  his  singular  quickness  of  observation.  Nothing  escaped 
his  attention  —  the  trees,  the  crops,  the  birds,  or  the  farmer's 
stock ;  and  he  was  usually  full  of  lively  conversation,  every  thing 
in  nature  affording  him  an  opportunity  for  making  some  striking 
remark  or  propounding  some  ingenious  theory.  When  taking  a 
flying  survey  of  a  new  line,  his  keen  observation  proved  very 
useful,  for  he  rapidly  noted  the  general  configuration  of  the  coun- 
try, and  inferred  its  geological  structure.  He  afterward  remark- 
ed to  a  friend, "  I  have  planned  many  a  railway  traveling  along 
in  a  post-chaise,  and  following  the  natural  line  of  the  country." 
And  it  was  remarkable  that  his  first  impressions  of  the  direction 
to  be  taken  almost  invariably  proved  correct ;  and  there  are  few 
of  the  lines  surveyed  and  recommended  by  him  which  have  not 
been  executed,  either  during  his  lifetime  or  since.  As  an  illus- 
tration of  his  quick  and  shrewd  observation  on  such  occasions, 
we  may  mention  that  when  employed  to  lay  out  a  line  to  connect 
Manchester,  through  Macclesfield,  with  the  Potteries,  the  gentle- 
man who  accompanied  him  on  the  journey  of  inspection  caution- 
ed him  to  provide  large  accommodation  for  carrying  off  the  wa- 
ter, observing, "  You  must  not  judge  by  the  appearance  of  the 
brooks ;  for  after  heavy  rains  these  hills  pour  down  volumes  of 
water,  of  which  you  can  have  no  conception."  "  Pooh !  pooh ! 
don't  I  see  your  bridges  ?"  replied  the  engineer.  He  had  noted 
the  details  of  each  as  he  passed  along. 


376  LINE  ACROSS  MORECAMBE  BAY.  [PART  II. 

Among  the  other  projects  which  occupied  his  attention  about 
the  same  time  were  the  projected  lines  between  Chester  and  Holy- 
head,  between  Leeds  and  Bradford,  and  between  Lancaster  and 
Maryport  by  the  west  coast.  This  latter  was  intended  to  form 
part  of  a  western  line  to  Scotland ;  Stephenson  favoring  it  partly 
because  of  the  flatness  of  the  gradients,  and  because  it  could  be 
formed  at  comparatively  small  cost,  while  it  would  open  out  a 
valuable  iron-mining  district,  from  which  a  large  traffic  in  iron- 
stone was  •  expected.  One  of  its  collateral  advantages,  in  the 
engineer's  opinion,  was  that,  by  forming  the  railway  directly 
across  Morecambe  Bay,  on  the  northwest  coast  of  Lancashire,  a 
large  tract  of  valuable  land  might  be  reclaimed  from  the  sea,  the 
sale  of  which  would  considerably  reduce  the  cost  of  the  works. 
He  estimated  that,  by  means  of  a  solid  embankment  across  the 
bay,  not  less  than  40,000  acres  of  rich  alluvial  land  would  be 
gained.  He  proposed  to  carry  the  road  across  the  ten  miles  of 
sands  which  lie  between  Poulton,  near  Lancaster,  and  Humphrey 
Head  on  the  opposite  coast,  forming  the  line  in  a  segment  of  a 
circle  of  five  miles'  radius.  His  plan  was  to  drive  in  piles  across 
the  entire  length,  forming  a  solid  fence  of  stone  blocks  on  the 
land  side  for  the  purpose  of  retaining  the  sand  and  silt  brought 
down  by  the  rivers  from  the  interior.  The  embankment  would 
then  be  raised  from  time  to  time  as  the  deposit  accumulated,  un- 
til the  land  was  filled  up  to  high-water  mark ;  provision  being 
made,  by  means  of  sufficient  arches,  for  the  flow  of  the  river  wa- 
ters into  the  bay.  The  execution  of  the  railway  after  this  plan 
would,  however,  have  occupied  more  years  than  the  promoters  of 
the  West  Coast  line  were  disposed  to  wait,  and  eventually  Mr. 
Locke's  more  direct  but  less  level  Hue  by  Shap  Fell  was  adopted. 
A  railway  has,  however,  since  been  carried  across  the  head  of  the 
bay,  in  a  modified  form,  by  the  TJlverstone  and  Lancaster  Kailway 
Company;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  Stephenson's  larger 
scheme  of  reclaiming  the  vast  tract  of  land  now  left  bare  at  ev- 
ery receding  tide  may  yet  be  carried  out. 

While  occupied  in  carrying  out  the  great  railway  undertakings 
which  we  have  above  so  briefly  described,  George  Stephenson's 
home  continued,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  time,  to  be  at  Alton 
Grange,  near  Leicester.  But  he  was  so  much  occupied  in  travel- 
ing about  from  one  committee  of  directors  to  another — one  week 


CHAP.  XV.]          STEPHENSON'S  IMMENSE  LABORS.  377 

in  England,  another  in  Scotland,  and  probably  the  next  in  Ire- 
land, that  he  often  did  not  see  his  home  for  weeks  together.  He 
had  also  to  make  frequent  inspections  of  the  various  important 
and  difficult  works  in  progress,  especially  on  the  Midland  and 
Manchester  and  Leeds  lines,  besides  occasionally  going  to  New- 
castle to  see  how  the  locomotive  works  were  going  on  there. 
During  the  three  years  ending  1837 — perhaps  the  busiest  years 
of  his  life* — he  traveled  by  post-chaise  alone  upward  of  20,000 
miles,  and  yet  not  less  than  six  months  out  of  the  three  years  were 
spent  in  London.  Hence  there  is  comparatively  little  to  record 
of  Mr.  Stephenson's  private  life  at  this  period,  during  which  he 
had  scarcely  a  moment  that  he  could  call  his  own. 

To  give  an  idea  of  the  number  of  projects  which  at  this  time 
occupied  our  engineer's  attention,  and  of  the  extent  and  rapidity 
of  his  journeys,  we  subjoin  from  his  private  secretary's  journal  the 
following  epitome  of  one  of  them,  on  which  he  entered  immedi- 
ately after  the  conclusion  of  the  heavy  Parliamentary  session  of 
1836. 

"  August  9th.  From  Alton  Grange  to  Derby  and  Matlock,  and 
forward  by  mail  to  Manchester,  to  meet  the  committee  of  the  South 
Union  Railway.  August  10th.  Manchester  to  Stockport,  to  meet 
committee  of  the  Manchester  and  Leeds  Railway ;  thence  to  meet 
directors  of  the  Chester  and  Birkenhead,  and  Chester  and  Crewe 
Railways.  August  llth.  Liverpool  to  Woodside,  to  meet  commit- 
tee of  the  Chester  and  Birkenhead  line ;  journey  with  them  along 
the  proposed  railway  to  Chester ;  then  back  to  Liverpool.  August 
12th.  Liverpool  to  Manchester,  to  meet  directors  of  the  Manchester 
and  Leeds  Railway,  and  traveling  with  them  over  the  works  in 
progress.  August  13th.  Continued  journey  over  the  works,  and 
arrival  atWakefield;  thence  to  York.  August  14th.  Meeting  with 
Mr.  Hudson  at  York,  and  journey  from  York  to  Newcastle.  Au- 
gust 15th.  At  Newcastle,  working  up  arrears  of  correspondence. 
August  16th.  Meeting  with  Mr.  Brandling  as  to  the  station  for  the 

*  During  this  period  he  was  engaged  on  the  North  Midland,  extending  from  Derby 
to  Leeds ;  the  York  and  North  Midland,  from  Normanton  to  York  ;  the  Manchester 
and  Leeds ;  the  Birmingham  and  Derby,  and  the  Sheffield  and  Rotherham  Railways ; 
the  whole  of  these,  of  which  he  was  principal  engineer,  having  been  authorized  in 
1836.  In  that  session  alone,  powers  were  obtained  for  the  construction  of  214  miles 
of  new  railways  under  his  direction,  at  an  expenditure  of  upward  of  five  millions 
sterling. 


378  JOURNAL  OF  WORK  DONE.  [PART  H. 

Brandling  Junction  at  Gateshead,  and  stations  at  other  parts  of  the 
line.  August  1 7th.  Carlisle  to  Wigton  and  Maryport,  examining 
the  railway.  August  19th.  Maryport  to  Carlisle,  continuing  the 
inspection.  August  20th.  At  Carlisle,  examining  the  ground  for 
a  station;  and  working  up  correspondence.  August  21st.  Carlisle 
to  Dumfries  by  mail ;  forward  to  Ayr  by  chaise,  proceeding  up  the 
valley  of  the  Nith,  through  Thornhill,  Sanquhar,  and  Cumnock. 
August  22d.  Meeting  with  promoters  of  the  Glasgow,  Kilmarnock, 
and  Ayr  Railway,  and  journey  along  the  proposed  line ;  meeting 
with  the  magistrates  of  Kilmarnock  at  Beith,  and  journey  with  them 
over  Mr.  Gale's  proposed  line  to  Kilmarnock.  August  23d.  From 
Kilmarnock  along  Mr.  Miller's  proposed  line  to  Beith,  Paisley,  and 
Glasgow.  August  24th.  Examination  of  site  of  proposed  station 
at  Glasgow ;  meeting  with  the  directors ;  then  from  Glasgow,  by 
Falkirk  and  Linlithgow,  to  Edinburg,  meeting  there  with  Mr.  Grain- 
ger, engineer,  and  several  of  the  committee  of  the  proposed  Edin- 
burg and  Dunbar  Ratfway.  August  25th.  Examining  the  site  of 
the  proposed  station  at  Edinburg ;  then  to  Dunbar,  by  Portobello 
and  Haddington,  examining  the  proposed  line  of  railway.  August 
26th.  Dunbar  to  Tommy  Grant's,  to  examine  the  summit  of  the 
country  toward  Berwick,  with  a  view  to  a  through  line  to  Newcas- 
tle ;  then  return  to  Edinburg.  August  27th.  At  Edinburg,  meet- 
ing the  provisional  committee  of  the  proposed  Edinburg  and  Dun- 
bar  Railway.  August  28th.  Journey  from  Edinburg,  through  Mel- 
rose  and  Jedburg,  to  Horsley,  along  the  route  of  Mr.  Richardson's 
proposed  railway  across  Carter  Fell.  August  29th.  From  Horsley 
to  Mr.  Brandling's,  then  on  to  Newcastle ;  engaged  on  the  Brand- 
ling Junction  Railway.  August  30th.  Engaged  with  Mr.  Brand- 
ling ;  after  which,  meeting  a  deputation  from  Maryport.  August 
31st.  Meeting  with  Mr.  Brandling  and  others  as  to  the  direction  of 
the  Brandling  Junction  in  connection  with  the  Great  North  of  En- 
gland line,  and  the  course  of  the  railway  through  Newcastle ;  then 
on  to  York.  September  1st.  At  York;  meeting  with  York  and 
North  Midland  directors;  then  journeying  over  Lord  Howden's 
property,  to  arrange  for  a  deviation ;  examining  the  proposed  site 
of  the  station  at  York  September  2d.  At  York,  giving  instructions 
as  to  the  survey ;  then  to  Manchester  by  Leeds.  September  3d. 
At  Manchester ;  journey  to  Stockport,  with  Mr.  Bidder  and  Mr. 
Bourne,  examining  the  line  to  Stockport,  and  fixing  the  crossing  of 
the  river  there ;  attending  to  the  surveys ;  then  journey  back  to 
Manchester,  to  meet  the  directors  of  the  Manchester  and  Leeds 
Railway.  September  4th.  Sunday  at  Manchester.  September  5th. 


CHAP.  XV.]  PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL  LABOR.  379 

Journey  along  part  of  the  Manchester  and  Leeds  Railway.  Sep- 
tember 6th.  At  Manchester,  examining  and  laying  down  the  section 
of  the  South  Union  line  to  Stockport ;  afterward  engaged  on  the 
Manchester  and  Leeds  working  plans,  in  endeavoring  to  give  a 
greater  radius  to  the  curves ;  seeing  Mr.  Seddon  about  the  Liver- 
pool, Manchester,  and  Leeds  Junction  Railway.  September  7th. 
Journey  along  the  Manchester  and  Leeds  line,  then  on  to  Derby. 
September  8th.  At  Derby ;  seeing  Mr.  Carter  and  Mr.  Beale  about 
the  Tamworth  deviation ;  then  home  to  Alton  Grange.  September 
10th.  At  Alton  Grange,  preparing  report  to  the  committee  of  the 
Edinburg  and  Dunbar  Railway." 

Such  is  a  specimen  of  the  enormous  amount  of  physical  and 
mental  labor  undergone  by  the  engineer  during  the  busy  years 
above  referred  to.  He  was  no  sooner  home  than  he  was  called 
away  again  by  some  other  railway  or  business  engagement. 
Thus,  in  four  days  after  his  arrival  at  Alton  Grange  from  the 
above  journey  into  Scotland,  we  find  him  going  over  the  whole 
of  the  North  Midland  line  as  far  as  Leeds ;  then  by  Halifax  to 
Manchester,  where  he  staid  for  several  days  on  the  business  of 
the  South  Union  line ;  then  to  Birmingham  and  London ;  back 
to  Alton  Grange,  and  next  day  to  Congleton  and  Leek ;  thence 
to  Leeds  and  Goole,  and  home  again  by  the  Sheffield  and  Roth- 
erham  and  the  Midland  works.  And  early  in  the  following 
month  (October)  he  was  engaged  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  exam- 
ining the  line,  and  reporting  upon  the  plans  of  the  projected  Ul- 
ster Railway.  He  was  also  called  upon  to  inspect  and  report 
upon  colliery  works,  salt  works,  brass  and  copper  works,  and  such 
like,  in  addition  to  his  own  colliery  and  railway  business.  He 
usually  also  staked  out  himself  the  lines  laid  out  by  him,  which 
involved  a  good  deal  of  labor  since  undertaken  by  assistants. 
And  occasionally  he  would  ran  up  to  London,  attending  in  per- 
son to  the  preparation  and  depositing  of  the  plans  and  sections 
of  the  projected  undertakings  for  which  he  was  engaged  as  en- 
gineer. 

His  correspondence  increased  so  much  that  he  found  it  neces- 
sary to  engage  a  private  secretary,  who  accompanied  him  on  his 
journeys.  He  was  himself  exceedingly  averse  to  writing  letters. 
The  comparatively  advanced  age  at  which  he  learned  the  art  of 
writing,  and  the  nature  of  his  duties  while  engaged  at  the  Killing- 


380  STEPHENSON'S  PHYSICAL  ENDURANCE.        [PART  II. 

worth  Colliery,  precluded  that  facility  in  correspondence  which 
only  constant  practice  can  give.  He  gradually,  however,  acquired 
great  facility  in  dictation,  and  had  also  the  power  of  laboring  con- 
tinuously at  this  work,  the  gentleman  who  acted  as  his  secretary 
in  the  year  1835  having  informed  us  that  during  his  busy  season 
he  one  day  dictated  no  fewer  than  thirty-seven  letters,  several  of 
them  embodying  the  results  of  much  close  thinking  and  calcula- 
tion. On  another  occasion  he  dictated  reports  and  letters  for 
twelve  continuous  hours,  until  his  secretary  was  ready  to  drop  off 
his  chair  from  sheer  exhaustion,  and  at  length  pleaded  for  a  sus- 
pension of  the  labor.  This  great  mass  of  correspondence,  though 
closely  bearing  on  the  subjects  under  discussion,  was  not,  how- 
ever, of  a  kind  to  supply  the  biographer  with  matter  for  quota- 
tion, or  to  give  that  insight  into  the  life  and  character  of  the 
writer  which  the  letters  of  literary  men  so  often  furnish.  They 
were,  for  the  most  part,  letters  of  mere  business,  relating  to  works 
in  progress,  Parliamentary  contests,  new  surveys,  estimates  of  cost, 
and  railway  policy — curt,  and  to  the  point ;  in  short,  the  letters  of 
a  man  every  moment  of  whose  time  was  precious. 

Fortunately,  George  Stephenson  possessed  a  facility  of  sleep- 
ing, which  enabled  him  to  pass  through  this  enormous  amount  of 
fatigue  and  labor  without  injury  to  his  health.  He  had  been 
trained  in  a  hard  school,  and  could  bear  with  ease  conditions 
which,  to  men  more  softly  nurtured,  would  have  been  the  ex- 
treme of  physical  discomfort.  Many,  many  nights  he  snatched 
his  sleep  while  traveling  in  his  chaise ;  and  at  break  of  day  he 
would  be  at  work,  surveying  until  dark,  and  this  for  weeks  in  suc- 
cession. His  whole  powers  seemed  to  be  under  the  control  of  his 
will,  for  he  could  wake  at  any  hour,  and  go  to  work  at  once.  It 
was  difficult  for  secretaries  and  assistants  to  keep  up  with  such  a 
man. 

It  is  pleasant  to  record  that  in  the  midst  of  these  engrossing 
occupations  his  heart  remained  as  soft  and  loving  as  ever.  In 
spring-time  he  would  not  be  debarred  of  his  boyish  amusement 
of  bird-nesting,  but  would  go  rambling  along  the  hedges  spying 
for  nests.  In  the  autumn  he  went  nutting,  and  when  he  could 
snatch  a  few  minutes  he  indulged  in  his  old  love  of  gardening. 
His  uniform  kindness  and  good  temper,  and  his  communicative, 
intelligent  disposition,  made  him  a  great  favorite  with  the  neigh- 


CHAP.  XV.]  mE  ROBINS  AT  AL TON  GRANGE.  381 

boring  farmers,  to  whom  he  would  volunteer  much  valuable  ad- 
vice on  agricultural  operations,  drainage,  plowing,  and  labor-sav- 
ing processes.  Sometimes  he  took  a  long  rural  ride  on  his  favor- 
ite "  Bobby,"  now  growing  old,  but  as  fond  of  his  master  as  ever. 
Toward  the  end  of  liis  life  "  Bobby"  lived  in  clover,  his  master's 
pet,  doing  no  work;  and  he  died  at  Tapton  in  1845,  more  than 
twenty  years  old. 

During  one  of  George's  brief  sojourns  at  the  Grange  he  found 
time  to  write  to  his  son  a  touching  account  of  a  pair  of  robins 
that  had  built  their  nest  within  one  of  the  empty  upper  chambers 
of  the  house.  One  day  he  observed  a  robin  fluttering  outside  the 
windows,  and  beating  its  wings  against  the  panes,  as  if  eager  to 
gain  admission.  lie  went  up  stairs,  and  there  found,  in  a  retired 
part  of  one  of  the  rooms,  a  robin's  nest,  with  one  of  the  parent 
birds  sitting  over  three  or  four  young — all  dead.  The  excluded 
bird  outside  still  beat  against  the  panes ;  and  on  the  window  be- 
ing let  down,  it  flew  into  the  room,  but  was  so  exhausted  that  it 
dropped  upon  the  floor.  Stephenson  took  up  the  bird,  carried  it 
down  stairs,  and  had  it  warmed  and  fed.  The  poor  robin  revived, 
and  for  a  time  was  one  of  his  pets.  But  it  shortly  died  too,  as  if 
unable  to  recover  from  the  privations  it  had  endured  during  its 
three  days'  fluttering  and  beating  at  the  windows.  It  appeared 
that  the  room  had  been  unoccupied,  and  the  sash  having  been  let 
down,  the  robins  had  taken  the  opportunity  of  building  their  nest 
within  it ;  but  the  servant  having  closed  the  window  again,  the 
calamity  befell  the  birds  which  so  strongly  excited  the  engineer's 
sympathies.  An  incident  such  as  this,  trifling  though  it  may 
seem,  gives  a  true  key  to  the  heart  of  a  man. 

The  amount  of  his  Parliamentary  business  having  greatly  in- 
creased with  the  projection  of  new  lines  of  railway,  the  Stephen- 
sons  found  it  necessary  to  set  up  an  office  in  London  in  1836. 
George's  first  office  was  at  No.  9  Duke  Street,  Westminster,  from 
whence  he  removed  in  the  following  year  to  30£  Great  George 
Street.  That  office  was  the  busy  scene  of  railway  politics  for  sev- 
eral years.  There  consultations  were  held,  schemes  were  ma- 
tured, deputations  were  received,  and  many  projectors  called  upon 
our  engineer  for  the  purpose  of  submitting  to  him  their  plans  of 
railways  and  railway  working.  His  private  secretary  at  the  time 
has  informed  us  that  at  the  end  of  the  first  Parliamentary  session 


382  VISIT  TO  BELGIUM.  [PART  II. 

in  which  he  had  been  engaged  as  engineer  for  more  companies 
than  one,  it  became  necessary  for  him  to  give  instructions  as  to 
the  preparation  of  the  accounts  to  be  rendered  to  the  several  com- 
panies. In  the  simplicity  of  his  heart,  he  directed  Mr.  Binns  to 
take  his  full  time  at  the  rate  of  ten  guineas  a  day,  and  charge  the 
railway  companies  in  the  proportion  in  which  he  had  actually 
been  employed  in  their  respective  business  during  each  day. 
When  Kobert  heard  of  this  instruction,  he  went  directly  to  his  fa- 
ther and  expostulated  with  him  against  this  unprofessional  course ; 
and,  other  influences  being  brought  to  bear  upon  him,  George  at 
length  reluctantly  consented  to  charge  as  other  engineers  did,  an 
entire  day's  fee  to  each  of  the  companies  for  which  he  was  con- 
cerned while  their  business  was  going  forward ;  but  he  cut  down 
the  number  of  days  charged  for,  and  reduced  the  daily  amount 
from  ten  to  seven  guineas. 

Besides  his  journeys  at  home,  George  Stephenson  was  on  more 
than  one  occasion  called  abroad  on  railway  business.  Thus,  at 
the  desire  of  King  Leopold,  he  made  several  visits  to  Belgium  to 
assist  the  Belgian  engineers  in  laying  out  the  national  lines  of  the 
kingdom.  That  enlightened  monarch  at  an  early  period  discern- 
ed the  powerful  instrumentality  of  railways  in  developing  a  coun- 
try's resources,  and  he  determined  at  the  earliest  possible  period  to 
adopt  them  as  the  great  high  roads  of  the  nation.  The  country, 
being  rich  in  coals  and  minerals,  had  great  manufacturing  capa- 
bilities. It  had  good  ports,  fine  navigable  rivers,  abundant  canals, 
and  a  teeming,  industrious  population.  Leopold  perceived  that 
railways  were  eminently  calculated  to  bring  the  industry  of  the 
country  into  full  play,  and  to  render  the  riches  of  the  provinces 
available  to  the  rest  of  the  kingdom.  lie  therefore  openly  de- 
clared himself  the  promoter  of  public  railways  throughout  Bel- 
gium. A  system  of  lines  was  projected  at  his  instance,  connect- 
ing Brussels  with  the  chief  towns  and  cities  of  the  state,  extend- 
ing from  Ostend  eastward  to  the  Prussian  frontier,  and  from 
Antwerp  southward  to  the  French  frontier. 

Mr.  Stephenson  and  his  son,  as  the  leading  railway  engineers 
of  England,  were  consulted  by  the  king,  in  1835,  as  to  the  best 
mode  of  carrying  out  his  intentions.  In  the  course  of  that  year 
they  visited  Belgium,  and  had  several  interesting  conferences 
with  Leopold  and  his  ministers  on  the  subject  of  the  proposed 


CHAP. XV.]  "WHICH  IS  STEPHENSON  t"  383 

railways.  The  king  then  appointed  George  Stephenson  by  royal 
ordinance  a  Knight  of  the  Order  of  Leopold.  At  the  invitation 
of  the  monarch,  Mr.  Stephenson  made  a  second  visit  to  Belgium 
in  1837,  on  the  occasion  of  the  public  opening  of  the  line  from 
Brussels  to  Ghent.  At  Brussels  there  was  a  public  procession, 
and  another  at  Ghent  on  the  arrival  of  the  train.  Stephenson 
and  his  party  accompanied  it  to  the  Public  Hall,  there  to  dine 
with  the  chief  ministers  of  state,  the  municipal  authorities,  and 
about  five  hundred  of  the  principal  inhabitants  of  the  city ;  the 
English  embassador  being  also  present.  After  the  king's  health 
and  a  few  others  had  been  drunk,  that  of  Mr.  Stephenson  was 
proposed ;  on  which  the  whole  assembly  rose  up,  amid  great  ex- 
citement and  loud  applause,  and  made  t^ieir  way  to  where  he  sat, 
in  order  to  "  jingle  glasses"  with  him,  greatly  to  his  own  amaze- 
ment. On  the  day  following,  our  engineer  dined  with  the  king 
and  queen  at  their  own  table  at  Laaken,  by  special  invitation, 
afterward  accompanying  his  majesty  and  suite  to  a  public  ball, 
given  by  the  municipality  of  Brussels  in  honor  of  the  opening 
of  the  Line  to  Ghent,  as  well  as  of  their  distinguished  English 
guests.  On  entering  the  room,  the  general  and  excited  inquiry 
was, "  Which  is  Stephenson?"  The  English  engineer  had  not  be- 
fore imagined  that  he  was  esteemed  to  be  so  great  a  man. 

The  London  and  Birmingham  Railway  having  been  completed 
in  September,  1838,  after  being  about  five  years  in  progress,  the 
great  main  system  of  railway  communication  between  London, 
Liverpool,  and  Manchester  was  then  opened  to  the  public.  For 
some  months  previously  the  line  had  been  partially  open,  coaches 
performing  the  journey  between  Denbigh  Hall  (near  Wolverton) 
and  Rugby — the  works  of  the  Kilsby  tunnel  being  still  incom- 
plete. It  was  already  amusing  to  hear  the  complaints  of  the 
travelers  about  the  slowness  of  the  coaches  as  compared  with  the 
railway,  though  the  coaches  traveled  at  a  speed  of  eleven  miles 
an  hour.  The  comparison  of  comfort  was  also  greatly  to  the 
disparagement  of  the  coaches.  Then  the  railway  train  could 
accommodate  any  quantity,  whereas  the  road  conveyances  were 
limited ;  and  when  a  press  of  travelers  occurred — as  on  the  oc- 
casion of  the  queen's  coronation — the  greatest  inconvenience  was 
experienced,  as  much  as  £10  having  been  paid  for  a  seat  on  a 
donkey-chaise  between  Rugby  and  Denbigh.  On  the  opening 


384  RAILWAY  OPENINGS.  [PART II. 

of  the  railway  throughout,  of  course  all  this  inconvenience  and 
delay  was  brought  to  an  end. 

Numerous  other  openings  of  railways  constructed  by  George 
Stephenson  took  place  about  the  same  time.  The  Birmingham 
and  Derby  line  was  opened  for  traffic  in  August,  1839 ;  the  Shef- 
field and  Rotherham  in  November,  1839  ;  and  in  the  course  of 
the  following  year,  the  Midland,  the  Tork  and  North  Midland, 
the  Chester  and  Crewe,  the  Chester  and  Birkenhead,  the  Man- 
chester and  Birmingham,  the  Manchester  and  Leeds,  and  the 
Maryport  and  Carlisle  railways,  were  all  publicly  opened  in  whole 
or  in  part.  Thus  321  miles  of  railway  (exclusive  of  the  London 
and  Birmingham),  constructed  under  Mr.  Stephenson's  superin- 
tendence, at  a  cost  of  upward  of  eleven  millions  sterling,  were,  in 
the  course  of  about  two  years,  added  to  the  traffic  accommoda- 
tion of  the  country. 

The  ceremonies  which  accompanied  the  public  opening  of  these 
lines  were  often  of  an  interesting  character.  The  adjoining  pop- 
ulation held  general  holiday ;  bands  played,  banners  waved,  and 
assembled  thousands  cheered  the  passing  trains  amid  the  occa- 
sional booming  of  cannon.  The  proceedings  were  usually  wound 
up  by  a  public  dinner ;  and  in  the  course  of  his  speech  which 
followed,  Mr.  Stephenson  would  revert  to  his  favorite  topic — the 
difficulties  which  he  had  early  encountered  in  the  promotion  of ' 
the  railway  system,  and  in  establishing  the  superiority  of  the  lo- 
comotive. On  such  occasions  he  always  took  great  pleasure  in 
alluding  to  the  services  rendered  to  himself  and  the  public  by 
the  young  men  brought  up  under  his  eye— his  pupils  at  first,  and 
afterward  his  assistants.  No  great  master  ever  possessed  a  more 
devoted  band  of  assistants  and  fellow- workers  than  he  did ;  and 
it  was  one  of  the  most  marked  evidences  of  his  admirable  tact 
and  judgment  that  he  selected,  with  such  undeviating  correctness, 
the  men  best  fitted  to  carry  out  his  plans.  Indeed,  the  ability  to 
accomplish  great  things,  to  carry  grand  ideas  into  practical  effect, 
depends  in  no  small  measure  on  that  intuitive  knowledge  of  char- 
acter which  our  engineer  possessed  in  so  remarkable  a  degree. 

At  the  dinner  at  York,  which  followed  the  partial  opening  of 
the  York  and  North  Midland  Railway,  Mr.  Stephenson  said  "  he 
was  sure  they  would  appreciate  his  feelings  when  he  told  them 
that,  when  he  first  began  railway  business,  his  hair  was  black, 


CHAP.  XV.]  STEPHENSON'S  ASSISTANTS.  385 

although  it  was  now  gray ;  and  that  he  began  his  life's  labor  as 
but  a  poor  plowboy.  About  thirty  years  since  he  had  applied 
himself  to  the  study  of  how  to  generate  high  velocities  by  me- 
chanical means.  lie  thought  he  had  solved  that  problem ;  and 
they  had  for  themselves  seen,  that  day,  what  perseverance  had 
brought  him  to.  He  was,  on  that  occasion,  only  too  happy  to 
have  an  opportunity  of  acknowledging  that  he  had,  in  the  latter 
portion  of  his  career,  received  much  most  valuable  assistance 
particularly  from  young  men  brought  up  in  his  manufactory. 
Whenever  talent  showed  itself  in  a  young  man,  he  had  always 
given  that  talent  encouragement  where  he  could,  and  he  would 
continue  to  do  so." 

That  this  was  no  exaggerated  statement  is  amply  proved  by 
many  facts  which  redound  to  Stephenson's  credit.  He  was  no 
niggard  of  encouragement  and  praise  when  he  saw  honest  indus- 
try struggling  for  a  footing.  Many  were  the  young  men  whom, 
in  the  course  of  his  career,  he  took  by  the  hand  and  led  steadily 
up  to  honor  and  emolument,  simply  because  he  had  noted  their 
zeal,  diligence,  and  integrity.  One  youth  excited  his  interest 
while  working  as  a  common  carpenter  on  the  Liverpool  and 
Manchester  line ;  and  before  many  years  had  passed  he  was  rec- 
ognized as  an  engineer  of  distinction.  Another  young  man  he 
found  industriously  working  away  at  his  by-hours,  and,  admiring 
his  diligence,  he  engaged  him  as  his  private  secretary,  the  gentle- 
man shortly  after  rising  to  a  position  of  eminent  influence  and 
usefulness.  Indeed,  nothing  gave  the  engineer  greater  pleasure 
than  in  this  way  to  help  on  any  deserving  youth  who  came  un- 
der his  observation,  and,  in  his  own  expressive  phrase,  to  "  make 
a  man  of  him." 

The  openings  of  the  great  main  lines  of  railroad  communi- 
cation shortly  proved  the  fallaciousness  of  the  numerous  rash 
prophecies  which  had  been  promulgated  by  the  opponents  of 
railways.  The  proprietors  of  the  canals  were  astounded  by  the 
fact  that,  notwithstanding  the  immense  traffic  conveyed  by  rail, 
their  own  traffic  and  receipts  continued  to  increase ;  and  that,  in 
common  with  other  interests,  they  fully  shared  in  the  expansion 
of  trade  and  commerce  which  had  been  so  effectually  promoted 
by  the  extension  of  the  railway  system.  The  cattle-owners  were 
equally  amazed  to  find  the  price  of  horseflesh  increasing  with  the 


386  EFFECTS  OF  RAILWAYS.  [PAKT  II. 

extension  of  railways,  and  that  the  number  of  coaches  running 
to  and  from  the  new  railway  stations  gave  employment  to  a 
greater  number  of  horses  than  under  the  old  stage-coach  system. 
Those  who  had  prophesied  the  decay  of  the  metropolis,  and  the 
ruin  of  the  suburban  cabbage-growers,  in  consequence  of  the  ap- 
proach of  railways  to  London,  were  disappointed ;  for,  while  the 
new  roads  let  citizens  out  of  London,  they  also  let  country-people 
in.  Their  action,  in  this  respect,  was  centripetal  as  well  as  cen- 
trifugal. Tens  of  thousands  who  had  never  seen  the  metropolis 
could  now  visit  it  expeditiously  and  cheaply ;  and  Londoners 
who  had  never  visited  the  country,  or  but  rarely,  were  enabled, 
at  little  cost  of  time  or  money,  to  see  green  fields  and  clear  blue 
skies  far  from  the  smoke  and  bustle  of  town.  If  the  dear  sub- 
urban-grown cabbages  became  depreciated  in  value,  there  were 
truck-loads  of  fresh-grown  country  cabbages  to  make  amends  for 
the  loss :  in  this  case,  the  "  partial  evil"  was  a  far  more  general 
good.  The  food  of  the  metropolis  became  rapidly  improved,  es- 
pecially in  the  supply  of  wholesome  meat  and  vegetables.  And 
then  the  price  of  coals — an  article  which,  in  this  country,  is  as 
indispensable  as  daily  food  to  all  classes — was  greatly  reduced. 
What  a  blessing  to  the  metropolitan  poor  is  described  in  this 
single  fact! 

The  prophecies  of  ruin  and  disaster  to  landlords  and  farmers 
were  equally  confounded  by  the  openings  of  the  railways.  The 
agricultural  communications,  so  far  from  being  "  destroyed,"  as 
had  been  predicted,  were  immensely  improved.  The  farmers 
were  enabled  to  buy  their  coals,  lime,  and  manure  for  less  money, 
while  they  obtained  a  readier  access  to  the  best  markets  for  their 
stock  and  farm-produce.  Notwithstanding  the  predictions  to  the 
contrary,  their  cows  gave  milk  as  before,  the  sheep  fed  and  fat- 
tened, and  even  skittish  horses  ceased  to  shy  at  the  passing  trains. 
The  smoke  of  the  engines  did  not  obscure  the  sky,  nor  were  farm- 
yards burnt  up  by  the  fire  thrown  from  the  locomotives.  The 
farming  classes  were  not  reduced  to  beggary ;  on  the  contrary, 
they  soon  felt  that,  so  far  from  having  any  thing  to  dread,  they 
had  very  much  good  to  expect  from  the  extension  of  railways. 

Landlords  also  f ound  that  they  could  get  higher  rent  for  farms 
situated  near  a  railway  than  at  a  distance  from  one.  Hence  they 
became  clamorous  for  "  sidings."  They  felt  it  to  be  a  grievance 


CHAP. XV.]  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  STAGE-COACH  SYSTEM.          387 

to  be  placed  at  a  distance  from  a  station.  After  a  railway  had 
been  once  opened,  not  a  landlord  would  consent  to  have  the  line 
taken  from  him.  Owners  who  had  fought  the  promoters  before 
Parliament,  and  compelled  them  to  pass  their  domains  at  a  dis- 
tance, at  a  vastly  increased  expense  in  tunnels  and  deviations, 
now  petitioned  for  branches  and  nearer  station-accommodation. 
Those  who  held  property  near  towns,  and  had  extorted  large 
sums  as  compensation  for  the  anticipated  deterioration  in  the  val- 
ue of  their  building  land,  found  a  new  demand  for  it  springing 
up  at  greatly  advanced  prices.  Land  was  now  advertised  for 
sale  wTith  the  attraction  of  being  "  near  a  railway  station." 

The  prediction  that,  even  if  railways  were  made,  the  public 
would  not  use  them,  was  also  completely  falsified  by  the  results. 
The  ordinary  mode  of  fast  traveling  for  the  middle  classes  had 
heretofore  been  by  mail-coach  and  stage-coach.  Those  who 
could  not  afford  to  pay  the  high  prices  charged  by  such  convey- 
ances went  by  wagon,  and  the  poorer  classes  trudged  on  foot. 
George  Stephenson  was  wont  to  say  that  he  hoped  to  see  the  day 
when  it  would  be  cheaper  for  a  poor  man  to  travel  by  railway 
than  to  walk,  and  not  many,  years  passed  before  his  expectation 
was  fulfilled.  In  no  country  in  the  world  is  time  worth  more 
money  than  in  England ;  and  by  saving  time — the  criterion  of 
distance — the  railway  proved  a  great  benefactor  to  men  of  in- 
dustry in  all  classes. 

Many  deplored  the  inevitable  downfall  of  the  old  stage-coach 
system.  There  was  to  be  an  end  of  that  delightful  variety  of  in- 
cident usually  attendant  on  a  journey  by  road.  The  rapid  scam- 
per across  a  fine  country  on  the  outside  of  the  four-horse  "  Ex- 
press" or  "Highflyer;"  the  seat  on  the  box  beside  Jehu,  or  the 
equally  coveted  place  near  the  facetious  guard  behind ;  the  jour- . 
ney  amid  open  green  fields,  through  smiling  villages  and  fine  old 
towns,  where  the  stage  stopped  to  change  horses  and  the  passen- 
gers to  dine,  was  all  very  delightful  in  its  way,  and  many  regret- 
ted that  this  old-fashioned  and  pleasant  style  of  traveling  was 
about  to  pass  away.  But  it  had  its  dark  side  also.  Any  one  who 
remembers  the  journey  by  stage  from  London  to  Manchester  or 
York  will  associate  it  with  recollections  and  sensations  of  not  un- 
mixed delight.  '  To  be  perched  for  twenty-four  hours,  exposed  to 
all  weathers,  on  the  outside  of  a  coach,  trying  in  vain  to  find  a 
BB 


388  POPULARITY  OF  RAILWAYS.  [PART  II. 

soft  seat — sitting  now  with  the  face  to  the  wind,  rain,  or  sun,  and 
now  with  the  back — without  any  shelter  such  as  the  commonest 
penny-a-mile  Parliamentary  train  now  daily  provides — was  a  mis- 
erable undertaking,  looked  forward  to  with  horror  by  many  whose 
business  required  them  to  travel  frequently  between  the  provinces 
and  the  metropolis.  Nor  were  the  inside  passengers  more  agree- 
ably accommodated.  To  be  closely  packed  in  a  little,  inconve- 
nient, straight-backed  vehicle,  *where  the  cramped  limbs  could 
not  be  in  the  least  extended,  nor  the  wearied  frame  indulge  in 
any  change  of  posture,  was  felt  by  many  to  be  a  terrible  thing. 
Then  there  were  the  constantly-recurring  demands,  not  always 
couched  in  the  politest  terms,  for  an  allowance  to  the  driver  ev- 
ery two  or  three  stages,  and  to  the  guard  every  six  or  eight ;  and 
if  the  gratuity  did  not  equal  their  expectations,  growling  and  open 
abuse  were  not  unusual.  These  desagremens,  together  with  the 
exactions  practiced  on  travelers  by  innkeepers,  seriously  detract- 
ed from  the  romance  of  stage-coach  traveling,  and  there  was  a 
general  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  public  to  change  the  sys- 
tem for  a  better. 

The  avidity  with  which  the  public  at  once  availed  themselves 
of  the  railways  proved  that  this  better  system  had  been  discovered. 
Notwithstanding  the  reduction  of  the  coach-fares  on  many  of  the 
roads  to  one  third  of  their  previous  rate,  the  public  preferred 
traveling  by  the  railway.  They  saved  in  time,  and  they  saved  in 
money,  taking  the  whole  expenses  into  account.  In  point  of  com- 
fort there  could  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  infinite  superiority  of  the 
locomotive  train.  But  there  remained  the  question  of  safety, 
which  had  been  a  great  bugbear  with  the  early  opponents  of  rail- 
ways, and  was  made  the  most  of  by  the  coach-proprietors  to  de- 
ter the  public  from  using  them.  It  was  predicted  that  trains  of 
passengers  woulcj  be  blown  to  pieces,  and  that  none  but  fools 
would  intrust  their  persons  to  the  conduct  of  an  explosive  ma- 
chine such  as  the  locomotive.  It  appeared,  however,  that  during 
the  first  eight  years  not  fewer  than  five  millions  of  passengers 
had  been  conveyed  along  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Eailway, 
and  of  this  vast  number  only  two  persons  had  lost  their  lives  by 
accident.  During  the  same  period,  the  loss  of  life  by  the  upset- 
ting of  stage-coaches  had  been  immensely  greater  in  proportion. 
The  public  were  not  slow,  therefore,  to  detect  the  fact  that  trav- 


CHAP.  XV.]          STEPHENSON'S  COACH  ACCIDENT.  389 

eling  by  railways  was  greatly  safer  than  traveling  by  common 
roads,  and  in  all  districts  penetrated  by  railways  the  coaches  were 
very  shortly  taken  off  for  want  of  mpport. 

George  Stephenson  himself  had  a  narrow  escape  in  one  of  the 
stage-coach  accidents  so  common  thirty  years  since,  but  which  are 
already  almost  forgotten.  While  the  Birmingham  line  was  un- 
der construction,  he  had  occasion  to  travel  from  Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch  to  London  by  coach.  He  was  an  inside  passenger  with 
several  others,  and  the  outsider  were  pretty  numerous.  When 
within  ten  miles  of  D  unstable,  he  felt,  from  the  rolling  of  the 
coach,  that  one  of  the  linchpins  securing  the  wheels  had  given 
way,  and  that  the  vehicle  must  upset.  He  endeavored  to  fix  him- 
self in  his  seat,  holding  on  firmly  by  the  arm-straps,  so  that  he 
might  save  himself  on  whichever  side  the  coach  fell.  The  coach 
soon  toppled  over,  and  fell  crash  upon  the  road,  amid  the  shrieks 
of  his  fellow-passengers  and  the  smashing  of  glass.  He  imme- 
diately pulled  himself  up  by  the  arm-strap  above  him,  let  down 
the  coach-window,  and  climbed  out.  The  coachman  and  passen- 
gers lay  scattered  about  on  the  road,  stunned,  and  some  of  them 
bleeding,  while  the  horses  were  plunging  in  their  harness.  Tak- 
ing out  his  pocket-knife,  he  at  once  cut  the  traces  and  set  the 
horses  free.  He  then  went  to  the  help  of  the  passengers,  who 
were  all  more  or  less  hurt.  The  guard  had  his  arm  broken,  and 
the  driver  was  seriously  cut  and  contused.  A  scream  from  one 
of  his  fellow-passenger  "  insides"  here  attracted  his  attention :  it 
proceeded  from  an  elderly  lady,  whom  he  had  before  observed  to 
be  decorated  with  one  of  the  enormous  bonnets  in  fashion  at  the 
time.  Opening  the  coach-door,  he  lifted  the  lady  out,  and  her 
principal  lamentation  was  that  her  large  bonnet  had  been  crushed 
beyond  remedy !  Stephenson  then  proceeded  to  the  nearest  vil- 
lage for  help,  and  saw  the  passengers  provided  with  proper  assist- 
ance before  he  himself  went  forward  on  his  journey. 

It  was  some  time  before  the  more  opulent  classes,  who  could 
afford  to  post  to  town  in  aristocratic  style,  became  reconciled  to 
the  railway  train.  It  put  an  end  to  that  gradation  of  rank  in 
traveling  which  was  one  of  the  few  things  left  by  which  the  no- 
bleman could  be  distinguished  from  the  Manchester  manufact- 
urer and  bagman.  But  to  younger  sons  of  noble  families  the 
convenience  and  cheapness  of  the  railway  did  not  fail  to  com- 


390  CONVENIENCE  OF  RAILWAYS.  [PART  II. 

mend  itself.  One  of  these,  whose  eldest  brother  had  just  suc- 
ceeded to  an  earldom,  said  to  a  railway  manager, "  I  like  railways 
— they  just  suit  young  fello\^p  like  me,  with '  nothing  per  annum 
paid  quarterly.'  You  know,  we  can't  afford  to  post,  and  it  used 
to  be  deuced  annoying  to  me,  as  I  was  jogging  along  on  the  box- 
seat  of  the  stage-coach,  to  see  the  little  earl  go  by,  drawn  by  his 
four  posters,  and  just  look  up  at  me  and  give  me  a  nod.  But 
now,  with  railways,  it's  different.  It's  true,  he  may  take  a  first- 
class  ticket,  while  I  can  only  afford  a  second-class  one,  but  we 
both  go  the  same  pace." 

For  a  time,  however,  many  of  the  old  families  sent  forward 
their  servants  and  luggage  by  railroad,  and  condemned  them- 
selves to  jog  along  the  old  highway  in  the  accustomed  family 
chariot,  dragged  by  country  post-horses.  But  the  superior  com- 
fort of  the  railway  shortly  recommended  itself  to  even  the  oldest 
families ;  posting  went  out  of  date ;  post-horses  were  with  diffi- 
culty to  be  had  along  even  the  great  high  roads ;  and  nobles  and 
servants,  manufacturers  and  peasants,  alike  shared  in  the  com- 
fort, the  convenience,  and  the  dispatch  of  railway  traveling.  The 
late  Dr.  Arnold,  of  Rugby,  regarded  the  opening  of  the  London 
and  Birmingham  line  as  another  great  step  accomplished  in  the 
march  of  civilization.  "  I  rejoice  to  see  it,"  he  said,  as  he  stood 
on  one  of  the  bridges  over  the  railway,  and  watched  the  train 
flashing  along  under  him,  and  away  through  the  distant  hedge- 
rows— "  I  rejoice  to  see  it,  and  to  think  that  feudality  is  gone  for- 
ever :  it  is  so  great  a  blessing  to  think  that  any  one  evil  is  really 
extinct." 

It  was  long  before  the  late  Duke  of  "Wellington  would  trust 
himself  behind  a  locomotive.  The  fatal  accident  to  Mr.  Huskis- 
son,  which  had  happened  before  his  eyes,  contributed  to  prejudice 
him  strongly  against  railways,  and  it  was  not  until  the  year  1843 
that  he  performed  his  first  trip  on  the  Southwestern  Railway,  in 
attendance  upon  her  majesty.  Prince  Albert  had  for  some  time 
been  accustomed  to  travel  by  railway  alone,  but  in  1842  the  queen 
began  to  make  use  of  the  same  mode  of  conveyance  between 
Windsor  and  London.  Even  Colonel  Sibthorpe  was  eventually 
compelled  to  acknowledge  its  utility.  For  a  time  he  continued 
to  post  to  and  from  the  country  as  before.  Then  he  compro- 
mised the  matter  by  taking  a  railway  ticket  for  the  long  journey, 


CHAP.  XV.]     SIBTHORPE  ON  THE  "INFERNAL  RAILROAD." 


and  posting  only  a  stage  or  two  nearest  town  ;  until,  at  length,  he 
undisguisedly  committed  himself,  like  other  people,  to  the  express 
train,  and  performed  the  journey  throughout  upon  what  he  had 
formerly  denounced  as  "  the  infernal  railroad." 


OOALVILLE  AND   6NIB8TO*  COLLIESV. 


TAPTON  HOUSE.     [By  Percival  Skelton.] 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

GEOEGE  STEPHENSON'S  COAL-MINES — APPEARS  AT  MECHANICS'  INSTI- 
TUTES— HIS  OPINION  ON  RAILWAY  SPEEDS — ATMOSPHERIC  SYSTEM 
RAILWAY  MANIA VISITS  TO  BELGIUM  AND  SPAIN. 

WHILE  George  Stephenson  was  engaged  in  carrying  on  the 
works  of  the  Midland  Railway  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chester- 
field, several  seams  of  coal  were  cut  through  in  the  Claycross 
Tunnel,  when  it  occurred  to  him  that  if  mines  were  opened  out 
there,  the  railway  would  provide  the  means  of  a  ready  sale  for 
the  article  in  the  midland  counties,  and  even  as  far  south  as  the 
metropolis  itself. 

At  a  time  when  every  body  else  was  skeptical  as  to  the  possi- 
bility of  coals  being  carried  from  the  midland  counties  to  Lon- 
don, and  sold  there  at  a  price  to  compete  with  those  which  were 
sea-borne,  he  declared  his  firm  conviction  that  the  time  was  fast 
approaching  when  the  London  market  would  be  regularly  sup- 
plied with  North-country  coals  led  by  railway.  One  of  the  great 
advantages  of  railways,  in  his  opinion,  was  that  they  would  bring 
iron  and  coal,  the  staple  products  of  the  country,  to  the  doors  of 
all  England.  "  The  strength  of  Britain,"  he  would  say,  "  lies  in 


CHAP.  XVI.]    GEORGE  STEPHENSON  ON  COAL  LINES.  393 

her  iron  and  coal  beds,  and  the  locomotive  is  destined,  above  all 
other  agencies,  to  bring  it  forth.  The  lord  chancellor  now  sits 
upon  a  bag  of  wool ;  but  wool  has  long  since  ceased  to  be  em- 
blematical of  the  staple  commodity  of  England.  He  ought  rath- 
er to  sit  upon  a  bag  of  coals,  though  it  might  not  prove  quite  so 
comfortable  a  seat.  Then  think  of  the  lord  chancellor  being  ad- 
dressed as  the  noble  and  learned  lord  on  the  coal-sack !  I  am 
afraid  it  wouldn't  answer,  after  all." 

To  one  gentleman  he  said :  "  We  want  from  the  coal-mining, 
the  iron-producing  and  manufacturing  districts,  a  great  railway 
for  the  carriage  of  these  valuable  products.  We-  want,  if  I  may 
so  say,  a  stream  of  steam  running  directly  through  the  country 
from  the  North  to  London.  Speed  is  not  so  much  an  object  as 
utility  and  cheapness.  It  will  not  do  to  mix  up  the  heavy  mer- 
chandise and  coal-trains  with  the  passenger-trains.  Coal  and 
most  kinds  of  goods  can  wait,  but  passengers  will  not.  A  less 
perfect  road  and  less  expensive  works  will  do  well  enough  for 
coal-trains,  if  run  at  a  low  speed ;  and  if  the  line  be  flat,  it  is  not 
of  much  consequence  whether  it  be  direct  or  not.  Whenever 
you  put  passenger-trains  on  a  line,  all  thte  other  trains  must  be 
run  at  high  speeds  to  keep  out  of  their  way.  But  coal-trains  run 
at  high  speeds  pull  the  road  to  pieces,  besides  causing  large  ex- 
penditure in  locomotive  power ;  and  I  doubt  very  much  whether 
they  will  pay,  after  all ;  but  a  succession  of  long  coal-trains,  if 
run  at  from  ten  to  fourteen  miles  an  hour,  would  pay  very  well. 
Thus  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Company  made  a  larger  profit 
when  running  coal  at  low  speeds  at  a  halfpenny  a  ton  per  mile, 
than  they  have  been  able  to  do  since  they  put  on  their  fast  pas- 
senger-trains, when  every  thing  must  needs  be  run  faster,  and  a 
much  larger  proportion  of  the  gross  receipts  is  consequently  ab- 
sorbed by  working  expenses." 

In  advocating  these  views,  George  Stephenson  was  consider- 
ably ahead  of  his  time ;  and  although  he  did  not  live  to  see  his 
anticipations  fully  realized  as  to  the  supply  of  the  London  coal- 
market,  he  was  nevertheless  the  first  to  point  it  out,  and  to  some 
extent  to  prove,  the  practicability  of  establishing  a  profitable 
coal-trade  by  railway  between  the  northern  counties  and  the  me- 
tropolis. So  long,  however,  as  the  traffic  was  conducted  on  main . 
passenger-lines  at  comparatively  high  speeds,  it  was  found  that 


394:  AMBERGATE  LIME-WORKS.  [PART  II. 

the  expenditure  on  tear  and  wear  of  road  and  locomotive  power 
— not  to  mention  the  increased  risk  of  carrying  on  the  first-class 
passenger  traffic  with  which  it  was  mixed  up — necessarily  left  a 
very  small  margin  of  profit,  and  hence  our  engineer  was  in  the 
habit  of  urging  the  propriety  of  constructing  a  railway  which 
should  be  exclusively  devoted  to  goods  and  mineral  traffic  run  at 
low  speeds  as  the  only  condition  on  which  a  large  railway  traffic 
of  that  sort  could  be  profitably  conducted. 

Having  induced  some  of  his  Liverpool  friends  to  join  him  in  a 
coal-mining  adventure  at  Chesterfield,  a  lease  was  taken  of  the 
Claycross  estate,  then  for  sale,  and  operations  were  shortly  after 
begun.  At  a  subsequent  period  Stephenson  extended  his  coal- 
mining operations  in  the  same  neighborhood,  and  in  1841  he  him- 
self entered  into  a  contract  with  owners  of  land  in  the  townships 
of  Tapton,  Brimington,  and  Newbold  for  the  working  of  the  coal 
thereunder,  and  pits  were  opened  on  the  Tapton  estate  on  an  ex- 
tensive scale.  About  the  same  time  he  erected  great  lime- works, 
close  to  the  Ambergate  station  of  the  Midland  Kailway,  from 
which,  when  in  full  operation,  he  was  able  to  turn  out  upward  of 
two  hundred  tons  a  day.  The  limestone  was  brought  on  a  tram- 
way from  the  village  of  Crich,  about  two  or  three  miles  distant 
from  the  kilns,  the  coal  being  supplied  from  his  adjoining  Clay- 
cross  Colliery.  The  works  were  on  a  scale  such  as  had  not  be- 


LIME-WOBKS  AT  AMBEBGATB.      [By  Percival  SkeltOD.] 


CHAP.  XVI.]  RESIDENCE  AT  TAPTON  HOUSE.  395 

fore  been  attempted  by  any  private  individual  engaged  in  a  sim- 
ilar trade,  and  we  believe  they  proved  very  successful. 

Tapton  House  was  included  in  the  lease  of  one  of  the  col- 
lieries, and  as  it  was  conveniently  situated — being,  as  it  were,  a 
central  point  on  the  Midland  Eailway,  from  which  the  engineer 
could  readily  proceed  north  or  south  on  his  journeys  of  inspec- 
tion of  the  various  lines  then  under  construction  in  the  midland 
and  northern  counties — he  took  up  his  residence  there,  and  it 
continued  his  home  until  the  close  of  his  life. 

Tapton  House  is  a  large,  roomy  brick  mansion,  beautifully 
situated  amid  woods,  upon  a  commanding  eminence,  about  a 
mile  to  the  northeast  of  the  town  of  Chesterfield.  Green  fields 
dotted  with  fine  trees  slope  away  from  the  house  in  all  direc- 
tions. The  surrounding  country  is  undulating  and  highly  pictur- 
esque. North  and  south  the  eye  ranges  over  a  vast  extent  of 
lovely  scenery ;  and  on  the  west,  looking  over  the  town  of  Ches- 
terfield, with  its  church  and  crooked  spire,  the  extensive  range  of 
the  Derbyshire  hills  bounds  the  distance.  The  Midland  Railway 
skirts  the  western  edge  of  the  park  in  a  deep  rock  cutting,  and 
the  locomotive's  shrill  whistle  sounds  near  at  hand  as  the  trains 
speed  past.  The  gardens  and  pleasure-grounds  adjoining  the 
house  were  in  a  very  neglected  state  when  Mr.  Stephenson  first 
went  to  Tapton,  and  he  promised  himself,  when  he  had  secured 
rest  and  leisure  from  business,  that  he  would  put  a  new  face  upon 
both.  The  first  improvement  he  made  was  in  cutting  a  wood- 
land footpath  up  the  hill-side,  by  which  he  at  the  same  time  add- 
ed a  beautiful  feature  to  the  park,  and  secured  a  shorter  road  to 
the  Chesterfield  station ;  but  it  was  some  years  before  he  found 
time  to  carry  into  effect  his  contemplated  improvements  in  the 
adjoining  gardens  and  pleasure-grounds.  He  had  so  long  been 
accustomed  to  laborious  pursuits,  and  felt  himself  still  so  full  of 
work,  that  he  could  not  at  once  settle  down  into  the  habit  of 
quietly  enjoying  the  fruits  of  his  industry. 

He  had  no  difficulty  in  usefully  employing  his  time.  Besides 
directing  the  mining  operations  at  Claycross,  the  establishment 
of  the  lime-kilns  at  Ambergate,  and  the  construction  of  the  ex- 
tensive railways  still  in  progress,  he  occasionally  paid  visits  to 
Newcastle,  where  his  locomotive  manufactory  was  now  in  full 
work,  and  the  proprietors  were  reaping  the  advantages  of  his 


396 


VISIT  TO  NEWCASTLE. 


PART  II. 


early  foresight  in  an  abundant  measure  of  prosperity.  One  of 
his  most  interesting  visits  to  the  place  was  in  1838,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  there,  when  he  act- 
ed as  one  of  the  Vice-Presidents  in  the  section  of  Mechanical 
Science.  Extraordinary  changes  had  taken  place  in  his  own  for- 
tunes, as  well  as  in  the  face  of  the  country,  since  he  had  first  ap- 
peared before  a  scientific  body  in  Newcastle — the  members  of 
the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Institute — to  submit  his  safety- 
lamp  for  their  examination.  Twenty-three  years  had  passed  over 
his  head,  full  of  honest  work,  of  manful  struggle,  and  the  hum- 
ble "colliery  engine -wright  of  the  name  of  Stephenson"  had 


i*a 


FOETH-STKEET   WOKK6,  NEWCASTLE. 


achieved  an  almost  world- wide  reputation  as  a  public  benefactor. 
His  fellow-townsmen,  therefore,  could  not  hesitate  to  recognize 
liis  merits  and  do  honor  to  his  presence.  During  the  sittings  of 
the  Association,  the  engineer  took  the  opportunity  of  paying  a 
visit  to  Killingworth,  accompanied  by  some  of  the  distinguished 
savans  whom  he  numbered  among  his  friends.  He  there  pointed 
out  to  them,  with  a  degree  of  honest  pride,  the  cottage  in  which 
he  had  lived  for  so  many  years,  showing  what  parts  of  it  had 
been  his  handiwork,  and  told  them  the  story  of  the  sun-dial  over 
the  door,  describing  the  study  and  the  labor  it  had  cost  him  and 
his  son  to  calculate  its  dimensions  and  fix  it  in  its  place.  The 


CHAP.XVI.]  ADDRESSES  AT  MECHANICS'  INSTITUTES.  397 

dial  had  been  serenely  numbering  the  hours  through  the  busy 
years  that  had  elapsed  since  that  humble  dwelling  had  been  his 
home,  during  which  the  Killingworth  locomotive  had  become  a 
great  working  power,  and  its  contriver  had  established  the  rail- 
way system,  which  was  now  rapidly  becoming  extended  in  all 
parts  of  the  civilized  world. 

About  the  same  time,  his  services  were  veiy  much  in  request 
at  the  meetings  of  Mechanics'  Institutes  held  throughout  the 
northern  counties.  From  a  very  early  period  in  his  history  he 
had  taken  an  active  interest  in  these  valuable  institutions.  While 
residing  at  Newcastle  in  1824,  shortly  after  his  locomotive  foiin- 
dery  had  been  started  in  Forth  Street,  he  presided  at  a  public 
meeting  held  in  that  town  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  Me- 
chanics' Institute.  The  meeting  was  held;  but,  as  George  Ste- 
phenson  was  a  man  comparatively  unknown  even  in  Newcastle 
at  that  time,  his  name  failed  to  secure  "  an  influential  attendance." 
Among  those  who  addressed  the  meeting  on  the  occasion  was  Jo- 
seph Locke,  then  his  pupil,  and  afterward  his  rival  as  an  engi- 
neer. The  local  papers  scarcely  noticed  the  proceedings,  yet  the 
Mechanics'  Instititute  was  founded  and  struggled  into  existence. 
Years  passed,  and  it  was  felt  to  be  an  honor  to  secure  Mr.  Ste- 
phenson's  presence  at  any  public  meetings  held  for  the  promotion 
of  popular  education.  Among  the  Mechanics'  Institutes  in  his 
immediate  neighborhood  at  Tapton  were  those  of  Belper  and 
Chesterfield,  and  at  their  soire'es  he  was  a  frequent  and  a  welcome 
visitor.  On  these  occasions  he  loved  to  tell  his  auditors  of  the 
difficulties  which  had*  early  beset  him  through  want  of  knowledge, 
and  of  the  means  by  which  he  had  overcome  them.  His  grand 
text  was — PERSEVERE  ;  and  there  was  manhood  in  the  word. 

On  more  than  one  occasion  the  author  had  the  pleasure  of  lis- 
tening to  George  Stephenson's  homely  but  forcible  addresses  at 
the  annual  soirees  of  the  Leeds  Mechanics'  Institute.  He  was 
always  an  immense  favorite  with  his  audiences  there.  His  per- 
sonal appearance  was  greatly  in  his  favor.  A  handsome,  ruddy, 
expressive  face,  lit  up  by  bright  dark  blue  eyes,  prepared  one  for 
his  earnest  words  when  he  stood  up  to  speak,  and  the  cheers  had 
subsided  which  invariably  hailed  his  rising.  He  was  not  glib, 
but  he  was  very  impressive.  And  who,  so  well  as  he,  could  serve 
as  a  guide  to  the  working-man  in  his  endeavors  after  higher 


398  STEPHENSOWS  SELF-ACTING  BRAKE.  [PART  II. 

knowledge  ?  His  early  life  had  been  all  struggle  —  encounter 
with  difficulty — groping  in  the  dark  after  greater  light,  but  always 
earnestly  and  perseveringly.  His  words  were  therefore  all  the 
more  weighty,  since  he  spoke  from  the  fullness  of  his  own  expe- 
rience. 

Nor  did  he  remain  a  mere  inactive  spectator  of  the  improve- 
ments in  railway  working  which  increasing  experience  from  day 
to  day  suggested.  He  continued  to  contrive  improvements  in  the 
locomotive,  and  to  mature  his  invention  of  the  carriage-brake. 
When  examined  before  the  Select  Committee  on  Railways  in 
1841,  his  mind  seems  to  have  been  impressed  with  the  necessity 
which  existed  for  adopting  a  system  of  self-acting  brakes,  stating 
that,  in  his  opinion,  this  was  the  most  important  arrangement  that 
could  be  provided  for  increasing  the  safety  of  railway  traveling. 
"  I  believe,"  he  said,  "that  if  self-acting  brakes  were  put  upon  ev- 
ery carriage,  scarcely  any  accident  could  take  place."  His  plan 
consisted  in  employing  the  momentum  of  the  running  train  to 
throw  his  proposed  brakes  into  action  immediately  on  the  mov- 
ing power  of  the  engine  being  checked.  He  would  also  have 
these  brakes  under  the  control  of  the  guard,  by  means  of  a  con- 
necting line  running  along  the  whole  length  of  the  train,  by 
which  they  should  at  once  be  thrown  out  of  gear  when  necessary. 
At  the  same  time  he  suggested,  as  an  additional  means  of  safety, 
that  the  signals  of  the  line  should  be  self-acting,  and  worked  by 
the  locomotives  as  they  passed  along  the  railway.  He  considered 
the  adoption  of  this  plan  of  so  much  importance  that,  with  a  view 
to  the  public  safety,  he  would  even  have  it  enforced  upon  rail- 
way companies  by  the  Legislature.  He  was  also  of  opinion  that 
it  was  the  interest  of  the  companies  themselves  to  adopt  the  plan, 
as  it  would  save  great  tear  and  wear  of  engines,  carriages,  ten- 
ders, and  brake-vans,  besides  greatly  diminishing  the  risk  of  acci- 
dents upon  railways. 

"While  before  the  same  committee,  he  took  the  opportunity  of 
stating  his  views  with  reference  to  railway  speeds,  about  which 
wild  ideas  were  then  afloat,  one  gentleman  of  celebrity  having 
publicly  expressed  the  opinion  that  a  speed  of  a  hundred  miles 
an  hour  was  practicable  in  railway  traveling !  Xot  many  years 
had  passed  since  Mr.  Stephenson  had  been,  pronounced  insane 
for  stating  his  conviction  that  twelve  miles  an  hour  could  be  per- 


CHAP.  XVI.]       STEPHENSON  ON  RAILWAY  SPEED.  399 

formed  by  the  locomotive ;  but,  now  that  he  had  established  the 
fact,  and  greatly  exceeded  that  speed,  he  was  thought  behind  the 
age  because  he  recommended  it  to  be  limited  to  forty  miles  an  hour. 
He  said :  "  I  do  not  like  either  forty  or  fifty  miles  an  hour  upon 
any  line — I  think  it  is  an  unnecessary  speed ;  and  if  there  is  dan- 
ger upon  a  railway,  it  is  high  velocity  that  creates  it.  I  should 
say  no  railway  ought  to  exceed  forty  miles  an  hour  on  the  most 
favorable  gradient ;  but  upon  a  curved  line  the  speed  ought  not 
to  exceed  twenty-four  or  twenty-five  miles  an  hour."  He  had, 
indeed,  constructed  for  the  Great  "Western  Railway  an  engine 
capable  of  running  fifty  miles  an  hour  with  a  load,  and  eighty 
miles  without  one.  But  he  never  was  in  favor  of  a  hurricane 
speed  of  this  sort,  believing  it  could  only  be  accomplished  at  an 
unnecessary  increase  both  of  danger  and  expense. 

"  It  is  true,"  he  observed  on  other  occasions,*  "  I  have  said  the 
locomotive  engine  might  be  made  to  travel  a  hundred  miles  an 
hour,  but  I  always  put  a  qualification  on  this,  namely,  as  to  what 
speed  would  best  suit  the  public.  The  public  may,  however,  be 
unreasonable ;  and  fifty  or  sixty  miles  an  hour  is  an  unreasonable 
speed.  Long  before  railway  traveling  became  general,  I  said  to 
my  friends  that  there  was  no  limit  to  the  speed  of  the  locomotive, 
provided  the  works  could  be  made  to  stand.  But  there  are 
limits  to  the  strength  of  iron,  whether  it  be  manufactured  into 
rails  or  locomotives,  and  there  is  a  point  at  which  both  rails  and 
tires  must  break.  Every  increase  of  speed,  by  increasing  the 
strain  upon  the  road  and  the  rolling  stock,  brings  us  nearer  to 
that  point.  At  thirty  miles  a  slighter  road  will  do,  and  less  per- 
fect rolling  stock  may  be  run  upon  it  with  safety.  But  if  you 
increase  the  speed  by  say  ten  miles,  then  every  thing  must  be 
greatly  strengthened.  You  must  have  heavier  engines,  heavier 
and  better-fastened  rails,  and  all  your  working  expenses  will  be 
immensely  increased.  I  think  I  know  enough  of  mechanics  to 
know  where  to  stop.  I  know  that  a  pound  will  weigh  a  pound, 
and  that  more  should  not  be  put  upon  an  iron  rail  than  it  will 
bear.  If  you  could  insure  perfect  iron,  perfect  rails,  and  perfect 
locomotives,  I  grant  fifty  miles  an  hour  or  more  might  be  run 
with  safety  on  a  level  railway.  But  then  you  must  not  forget 

*  It  may  be  mentioned  that  these  views  were  communicated  to  the  author  by 
Robert  Stephenson,  and  noted  down  in  his  presence. 


400  THEORY  OF "  UNDULATING  LINES."  [PART II. 

that  iron,  even  the  best,  will '  tire,'  and  with  constant  use  will  be- 
come more  and  more  liable  to  break  at  the  weakest  point — per- 
haps where  there  is  a  secret  flaw  that  the  eye  can  not  detect. 
Then  look  at  the  rubbishy  rails  now  manufactured  on  the  con- 
tract system — some  of  them  little  better  than  cast  metal :  indeed, 
I  have  seen  rails  break  merely  on  being  thrown  from  the  truck  on 
to  the  ground.  How  is  it  possible  for  such  rails  to  stand  a  twen- 
ty or  thirty  ton  engine  dashing  over  them  at  the  speed  of  fifty 
miles  an  hour  ?  No,  no,"  he  would  conclude, "  I  am  in  favor  of 
low  speeds  because  they  are  safe,  and  because  they  are  economi- 
cal ;  and  you  may  rely  upon  it  that,  beyond  a  certain  point,  with 
every  increase  of  speed  there  is  a  certain  increase  in  the  element 
of  danger." 

When  railways  became  the  subject  of  popular  discussion,  many 
new  and  unsound  theories  were  started  with  reference  to  them, 
which  Stephenson  opposed  as  calculated,  in  his  opinion,  to  bring 
discredit  on  the  locomotive  system.  One  of  these  was  with  ref- 
erence to  what  were  called  "undulating  lines."  Dr.  Lardner, 
who  at  an  earlier  period  was  skeptical  as  to  the  powers  of  the  lo- 
comotive, now  promulgated  the  idea  that  a  railway  constructed 
with  rising  and  falling  gradients  would  be  practically  as  easy  to 
work  as  a  line  perfectly  level.  Mr.  Badnell  went  even  beyond 
him,  for  he  held  that  an  undulating  railway  was  much  better 
than  a  level  one  for  purposes  of  working.*  For  a  time  this  the- 
ory found  favor,  and  the  "  undulating  system"  was  extensively 
adopted ;  but  George  Stephenson  never  ceased  to  inveigh  against 
it,  and  experience  has  proved  that  his  judgment  was  correct. 
His  practice,  from  the  beginning  of  his  career  until  the  end  of 
it,  was  to  secure  a  road  as  nearly  as  possible  on  a  level,  following 
the  course  of  the  valleys  and  the  natural  line  of  the  country ; 
preferring  to  go  round  a  hill  rather  than  to  tunnel  under  it  or 
carry  his  railway  over  it,  and  often  making  a  considerable  circuit 
to  secure  good  workable  gradients.  He  studied  to  lay  out  his 
lines  so  that  long  trains  of  minerals  and  merchandise,  as  well  as 
passengers,  might  be  hauled  along  them  at  the  least  possible  ex- 
penditure of  locomotive  power.  He  had  long  before  ascertained, 
by  careful  experiments  at  Killingworth,  that  the  engine  expends 
half  its  power  in  overcoming  a  rising  gradient  of  1  in  260,  which 

*  "  Treatise  on  Railway  Improvements."    By  Mr.  Richard  Badnell,  C.E. 


CHAP.  XVI.]         THE  NEW  SCHOOL  OF  ENGINEERS.  401 

is  about  20  feet  in  the  mile ;  and  that  when  the  gradient  is  so 
steep  as  1  in  100,  not  less  than  three  fourths  of  its  power  is  sac- 
rificed in  ascending  the  acclivity.  He  never  forgot  the  valuable 
practical  lessons  taught  him  by  these  early  trials,  which  he  had 
made  and  registered  long  before  the  advantages  of  railways  had 
become  recognized.  He  saw  clearly  that  the  longer  flat  line 
must  eventually  prove  superior  to  the  shorter  line  of  steep  gra- 
dients as  respected  its  paying  qualities.  He  urged  that,  after  all, 
the  power  of  the  locomotive  was  but  limited ;  and,  although  he 
and  his  son  had  done  more  than  any  other  men  to  increase  its 
working  capacity,  it  provoked  him  to  find  that  every  improve- 
ment made  in  it  was  neutralized  by  the  steep  gradients  which  the 
new  school  of  engineers  were  setting  it  to  overcome.  On  one  oc- 
casion, when  Robert  Stephenson  stated  before  a  Parliamentary 
committee  that  every  successive  improvement  in  the  locomotive 
was  being  rendered  virtually  nugatory  by  the  difficult  and  almost 
impracticable  gradients  proposed  on  many  of  the  new  lines,  his 
father,  on  his  leaving  tfce  witness-box,  went  up  to  him,  and  said, 
"  Robert,  you  never  spoke  truer  words  than  those  in  all  your 
life." 

To  this  it  must  be  added,  that  in  urging  these  views  George 
Stephenson  was  strongly  influenced  by  commercial  considerations. 
He  had  no  desire  to  build  up  his  reputation  at  the  expense  of 
railway  shareholders,  nor  to  obtain  engineering  eclat  by  making 
"  ducks  and  drakes"  of  their  money.  He  was  persuaded  that,  in 
order  to  secure  the  practical  success  of  railways,  they  must  be  so 
laid  out  as  not  only  to  prove  of  decided  public  utility,  but  also  to 
be  worked  economically  and  to  the  advantage  of  their  proprie- 
tors. They  were  not  government  roads,  but  private  ventures — in 
fact,  commercial  speculations.  He  therefore  endeavored  to  ren- 
der them  financially  profitable ;  and  he  repeatedly  declared  that 
if  he  did  not  believe  they  could  be  "  made  to  pay,"  he  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  them.'5*'  Nor  was  he  influenced  by  the  sordid 

*  He  often  refused  to  act  as  engineer  for  lines  which  he  thought  would  not  prove 
remunerative,  or  when  he  considered  the  estimates  too  low.  Thus,  when  giving  evi- 
dence on  the  Great  Western  Bill,  Stephenson  said,  "  I  made  out  an  estimate  for  the 
Hartlepool  Railway,  which  they  returned  on  account  of  its  being  too  high,  but  I  de- 
clined going  to  Parliament  with  a  lower  estimate.  Another  engineer  was  employed. 
Then,  again,  I  was  consulted  about  a  line  from  Edinbnrg  to  Glasgow.  The  directors 
chalked  out  a  line  and  sent  it  to  me,  and  I  told  them  I  could  not  support  it  in  that 


402  A  TMOSPHERIC  RAIL  WA  YS  PROPOSED.          [PART  II. 

consideration  merely  of  what  he  could  make  out  of  any  company 
that  employed  him,  but  in  many  cases  he  voluntarily  gave  up  his 
claim  to  remuneration  where  the  promoters  of  schemes  which  he 
thought  praiseworthy  had  suffered  serious  loss.  Thus,  when  the 
first  application  was  made  to  Parliament  for  the  Chester  and  Bir- 
kenhead  Eailway  Bill,  the  promoters  were  defeated.  They  re- 
peated their  application  on  the  understanding  that  in  event  of 
their  succeeding  the  engineer  and  surveyor  were  to  be  paid  their 
costs  in  respect  of  the  defeated  measure.  The  bill  was  success- 
ful, and  to  several  parties  their  costs  were  paid.  Stephenson's 
amounted  to  £80Q,  and  he  very  nobly  said,  "  You  have  had  an 
expensive  career  in  Parliament ;  you  have  had  a  great  struggle ; 
you  are  a  young  company;  you  can  not  afford  to  pay  me  this 
amount  of  money ;  I  will  reduce  it  to  £200,  and  I  will  not  ask 
you  for  the  £200  until  your  shares  are  at  £20  premium;  for, 
whatever  may  be  the  reverses  you  have  to  go  through,  I  am  satis- 
fied I  shah1  live  to  see  the  day  when  your  shares  will  be  at  £20 
premium,  and  when  I  can  legally  and  honifebly  claim  that  £200."* 
We  may  add  that  the  shares  did  eventually  rise  to  the  premium 
specified,  and  the  engineer  was  no  loser  by  his  generous  conduct 
in  the  transaction. 

Another  novelty  of  the  time  with  which  George  Stephenson 
had  to  contend  was  the  proposed  substitution  of  atmospheric 
pressure  for  locomotive  steam-power  in  the  working  of  railways. 
The  idea  of  obtaining  motion  by  means  of  atmospheric  pressure 
originated  with  Denis  Papin  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  ago ; 
but  it  slept  until  revived  in  1810  by  Mr.  Medhurst,  who  publish- 
ed a  pamphlet  to  prove  the  practicability  of  carrying  letters  and 
goods  by  air.  In  1824,  Mr.  Yallance,  of  Brighton,  took  out  a 
patent  for  projecting  passengers  through  a  tube  large  enough  to 
contain  a  train  of  carriages,  the  tube  ahead  of  the  carriages  be- 
ing previously  exhausted  of  its  atmospheric  air.  The  same  idea 
was  afterward  taken  up,  in  1835,  by  Mr.  Pinkus,  an  ingenious 
American.  Several  scientific  gentlemen,  Dr.  Lardner  and  Mr. 
Clegg  among  others,  advocated  the  plan,  and  an  association  was 

case."  Hence  the  employment  of  another  engineer  to  carry  out  the  line  which  Ste- 
phenson could  not  conscientiously  advocate. 

*  Speech  of  Wm.  Jackson,  Esq.,  M.P.,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Chester  and  Birken- 
head  Eailway  Company,  held  at  Liverpool,  October,  1845. 


CHAP.  XVI.]      A  TMOSPHERIC  RAIL  WA  YS  ADOPTED.  403 

f ormed  to  carry  it  into  effect.  Shares  were  created,  and  £18,000 
raised;  and  a  model  apparatus  was  exhibited  in  London.  Mr. 
Vignolles  took  Mr.  Stephenson  to  see  the  model ;  and  after  care- 
fully examining  it, he  observed  emphatically, "It  won't  do:  it  is 
only  the  fixed  engines  and  ropes  over  again,  in  another  form; 
and,  to  tell  you  the  truth,  I  don't  think  this  rope  of  wind  will  an- 
swer so  well  as  the  rope  of  wire  did."  He  did  not  think  the 
principle  would  stand  the  test  of  practice,  and  he  objected  to  the 
mode  of  applying  the  principle.  The  stationary-engine  system 
was  open  to  serious  objections  in  whatever  form  applied;  and 
every  day's  experience  showed  that  the  fixed  engines  could  not 
compete  with  locomotives  in  point  of  efficiency  and  economy. 
Stephenson  stood  by  the  locomotive  engine,  and  subsequent  expe- 
rience proved  that  he  was  right. 

Messrs.  Clegg  and  Samuda  afterward,  in  1840,  patented  their 
plan  of  an  atmospheric  railway,  and  they  publicly  tested  its  work- 
ing on  a  portion  of  the  West  London  Railway.  The  results  of 
the  experiment  were  considered  so  satisfactory,  that  the  directors 
of  the  Dublin  and  'Kingstown  line  adopted  it  between  Kingstown 
and  Dalkey.  The  London  and  Croydon  Company  also  adopted 
the  atmospheric  principle ;  and  their  line  was  opened  in  1845. 
The  ordinary  mode  of  applying  the  power  was  to  lay  between  the 
line  of  rails  a  pipe,  in  which  a  large  piston  was  inserted,  and  at- 
tached by  a  shaft  to  the  framework  of  a  carriage.  The  propel- 
ling power  was  the  ordinary  pressure  of  the  atmosphere  acting 
against  the  piston  in  the  tube  on  one  side,  a  vacuum  being  cre- 
ated in  the  tube  on  the  other  side  of  the  piston  by  the  working  of 
a  stationary  engine.  Great  was  the  popularity  of  the  atmospheric 
system ;  and  still  George  Stephenson  said, "  It  won't  do ;  it's  but 
a  gimcrack."  Engineers  of  distinction  said  he  was  prejudiced, 
and  that  he  looked  upon  the  locomotive  as  a  pet  child  of  his  own. 
"  Wait  a  little,"  he  replied, "  and  you  will  see  that  I  am  right." 
It  was  generally  supposed  that  the  locomotive  system  was  about 
to  be  snuffed  out.  "  Not  so  fast,"  said  Stephenson.  "  Let  us  wait 
to  see  if  it  will  pay."  He  never  believed  it  would.  It  was  in- 
genious, clever,  scientific,  and  all  that ;  but  railways  were  com- 
mercial enterprises,  not  toys ;  and  if  the  atmospheric  railway 
could  not  work  to  a  profit,  it  would  not  do.  Considered  in  this 
light,  he  even  went  so  far  as  to  call  it "  a  great. humbug." 
Co 


404  FAILURE  OF  THE  ATMOSPHERIC  SYSTEM.      [PART  II. 

JSTo  one  can  say  that  the  atmospheric  railway  had  not  a  fail- 
trial.  The  government  engineer,  General  Pasley,  did  for  it  what 
had  never  been  done  for  the  locomotive— he  reported  in  its  favor, 
whereas  a  former  government  engineer  had  inf erentially  reported 
against  the  use  of  locomotive  power  on  railways.  The  House  of 
Commons  had  also  reported  in  favor  of  the  use  of  the  steam-en- 
gine on  common  roads ;  yet  the  railway  locomotive  had  vitality 
enough  in  it  to  live  through  all.  "Nothing  will  beat  it,"  said 
George  Stephenson,  "  for  efficiency  in  all  weathers,  for  economy 
in  drawing  loads  of  average  weight,  and  for  power  and  speed  as 
occasion  may  require." 

The  atmospheric  system  was  fairly  and  fully  tried,  and  it  was 
found  wanting.  It  was  admitted  to  be  an  exceedingly  elegant 
mode  of  applying  power;  its  devices  were  very  skillful,  and  its 
mechanism  was  most  ingenious.  But  it  was  costly,  irregular  in 
action,  and,  in  particular  kinds  of  weather,  not  to  be  depended 
upon.  At  best,  it  was  but  a  modification  of  the  stationary-engine 
system,  and  experience  proved  it  to  be  so  expensive  that  it  was 
shortly  after  entirely  abandoned  in  favor  of  locomotive  power.* 

One  of  the  remarkable  results  of  the  system  of  railway  loco- 
motion which  George  Stephenson  had  by  his  persevering  labors 
mainly  contributed  to  establish  was  the  outbreak  of  the  railway 
mania  toward  the  close  of  his  professional  career.  The  success 
of  the  first  main  lines  of  railway  naturally  led  to  their  extension 
into  many  new  districts ;  but  a  strongly  speculative  tendency  soon 
began  to  display  itself,  which  contained  in  it  the  elements  of  great 
danger. 

The  extension  of  railways  had,  up  to  the  year  1844,  been  main- 
ly effected  by  men  of  the  commercial  classes,  and  the  sharehold- 
ers in  them  principally  belonged  to  the  manufacturing  districts — 
the  capitalists  of  the  metropolis  as  yet  holding  aloof,  and  prophe- 
sying disaster  to  all  concerned  in  railway  projects.  The  Stock 
Exchange  looked  askance  upon  them,  and  it  was  with  difficulty 

*  The  question  of  the  specific  merits  of  the  atmospheric  as  compared  with  the  fixed 
engine  and  locomotive  systems  will  be  found  fully  discussed  in  Robert  Stephenson's 
able  "  Report  on  the  Atmospheric  Railway  System,  1844,  in  which  he  gave  the  result 
of  numerous  observations  and  experiments  made  by  him  on  the  Kingstown  Atmos- 
pheric Railway,  with  the  object  of  ascertaining  whether  the  new  power  would  be  ap- 
plicable for  the  working  of  the  Chester  and  Holyhead  Railway  then  under  construc- 
tion. His  opinion  was  decidedly  against  the  atmospheric  system. 


CHAP.  XVI.]  GAMBLING  IN  RAILWAYS.  405 

that  respectable  brokers  could  be  found  to  do  business  in  the 
shares.  But  when  the  lugubrious  anticipations  of  the  City  men 
were  found  to  be  so  entirely  falsified  by  the  results — when,  after 
the  lapse  of  years,  it  was  ascertained  that  railway  traffic  rapidly 
increased  and  dividends  steadily  improved — a  change  came  over 
the  spirit  of  the  London  capitalists.  They  then  invested  largely 
in  railways,  the  shares  in  which  became  a  leading  branch  of  bus- 
iness on  the  Stock  Exchange,  and  the  prices  of  some  rose  to  near- 
ly double  their  original  value. 

A  stimulus  was  thus  given  to  the  projection  of  farther  lines, 
the  shares  in  most  of  which  came  out  at  a  premium,  and  became 
the  subject  of  immediate  traffic.  A  reckless  spirit  of  gambling 
set  in,  which  completely  changed  the  character  and  objects  of 
railway  enterprise.  The  public  outside  the  Stock  Exchange  be- 
came also  infected,  and  many  persons  utterly  ignorant  of  rail- 
ways, but  hungering  and  thirsting  after  premiums,  rushed  eagerly 
into  the  vortex.  They  applied  for  allotments,  and  subscribed  for 
shares  in  lines,  of  the  engineering  character  or  probable  traffic  of 
which  they  knew  nothing.  Provided  they  could  but  obtain  allot- 
ments which  they  could  sell  at  a  premium,  and  put  the  profit — 
in  many  cases  the  only  capital  they  possessed* — into  their  pock- 
ets, it  was  enough  for  them.  The  mania  was  not  confined  to  the 
precincts  of  the  Stock  Exchange,  but  infected  all  ranks.  It  em- 
braced merchants  and  manufacturers,  gentry  and  shop-keepers, 
clerks  in  public  offices,  and  loungers  at  the  clubs.  Noble  lords 
were  pointed  at  as  "  stags ;"  there  were  even  clergymen  who  were 
characterized  as  "  bulls,"  and  amiable  ladies  who  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  "  bears,"  in  the  share-markets.  The  few  quiet  men  who 
remained  uninfluenced  by  the  speculation  of  the  time  were,  in 
not  a  few  cases,  even  reproached  for  doing  injustice  to  their  fam- 
ilies in  declining  to  help  themselves  from  the  stores  of  wealth  that 
were  poured  out  on  all  sides. 

Folly  and  knavery  were  for  a  time  in  the  ascendant  The 
sharpers  of  society  were  let  loose,  and  jobbers  and  schemers  be- 
came more  and  more  plentiful.  They  threw  out  railway  schemes 

*  The  Marquis  of  Clanricarde  brought  under  the  notice  of  the  House  of  Lords,  in 
1845,  that  one  Charles  Guernsey,  the  son  of  a  charwoman  and  a  clerk  in  a  broker's 
office  at  12s.  a  week,  had  his  name  down  as  a  subscriber  for  shares  in  the  London  and 
York  linger  £52,000. 


406  THE  RAIL  WA  Y  MANIA.  [PART  H. 

as  lures  to  catch  the  unwary.  They  fed  the  mania  with  a  con- 
stant succession  of  new  projects.  The  railway  papers. became 
loaded  with  their  advertisements.  The  post-office  was  scarcely 
able  to  distribute  the  multitude  of  prospectuses  and  circulars 
which  they  issued.  For  a  time  their  popularity  was  immense. 
They  rose  like  froth  into  the  upper  heights  of  society,  and  the 
flunkey  Fitz  Plushe,  by  virtue  of  his  supposed  wealth,  sat  among 
peers  and  was  idolized.  Then  was  the  harvest-time  for  scheming 
lawyers,  Parliamentary  agents,  engineers,  surveyors,  and  traffic- 
takers,  who  were  ready  to  take  up  any  railway  scheme  however 
desperate,  and  to  prove  any  amount  of  traffic  even  where  none 
existed.  The  traffic  in  the  credulity  of  their  dupes  was,  however, 
the  great  fact  that  mainly  concerned  them,  and  of  the  profitable 
character  of  which  there  could  be  no  doubt. 

Parliament,  whose  previous  conduct  in  connection -with  rail- 
way legislation  was  so  open  to  reprehension,  interposed  no  check 
— attempted  no  remedy.  On  the  contrary,  it  helped  to  intensify 
the  evils  arising  from  this  unseemly  state  of  things.  Many  of 
its  members  were  themselves  involved  in  the  mania,  and  as  much 
interested  in  its  continuance  as  the  vulgar  herd  of  money-grub- 
bers. The  railway  prospectuses  now  issued — unlike  the  original 
Liverpool  and  Manchester,  and  London  and  Birmingham  schemes 
— were  headed  by  peers,  baronets,  landed  proprietors,  and  strings 
of  M.P's.  Thus  it  was  found  in  1845  that  no  fewer  than  157 
members  of  Parliament  were  on  the  lists  of  new  companies  as 
subscribers  for  sums  ranging  from  £291,000  downward !  The 
projectors  of  new  lines  even  came  to  boast  of  their  Parliamentary 
strength,  and  of  the  number  of  votes  which  they  could  command 
in  "  the  House."  At  all  events,  it  is  matter  of  fact,  that  many 
utterly  ruinous  branches  and  extensions  projected  during  the 
mania,  calculated  only  to  benefit  the  inhabitants  of  a  few  miser- 
able boroughs  accidentally  omitted  from  Schedule  A,  were  au- 
thorized in  the  memorable  sessions  of  1844  and  1845. 

George  Stephenson  was  anxiously  entreated  to  lend  his  name 
to  prospectuses  during  the  railway  mania,  but  he  invariably  re- 
fused. He  held  aloof  from  the  headlong  folly  of  the  hour,  and 
endeavored  to  check  it,  but  in  vain.  Had  he  been  less  scrupu- 
lous, and  given  his  countenance  to  the  numerous  projects  about 
which  he  was  consulted,  he  might,  without  any  trouble,  fase  thus 


CHAP.  XVI.]     STEPHENSON  ON  RAILWAY  SPECULATION.         407 

secured  enormous  gains ;  but  he  had  no  desire  to  accumulate  a 
fortune  without  labor  and  without  honor.  He  himself  never 
speculated  in  shares.  When  he  was  satisfied  as  to  the  merits  of 
an  undertaking,  he  would  sometimes  subscribe  for  a  certain 
amount  of  capital  in  it,  when  he  held  on,  neither  buying  nor 
selling.  'At  a  dinner  of  the  Leeds  and  Bradford  directors  at 
Ben  Rydding  in  October,  1844,  before  the  mania  had  reached  its 
height,  he  warned  those  present  against  the  prevalent  disposition 
toward  railway  speculation.  It  was,  he  said,  like  walking  upon  a 
piece  of  ice  with  shallows  and  deeps ;  the  shallows  were  frozen 
over,  and  they  would  carry,  but  it  required  great  caution  to  get 
over  the  deeps.  He  was  satisfied  that  in  the.  course  of  the  next 
year  many  would  step  on  to  places  not  strong  enough  to  carry 
them,  and  would  get  into  the  deeps ;  they  would  be  taking  shares, 
and  afterward  be  unable  to  pay  the  calls  upon  them.  Yorkshire- 
men  were  reckoned  clever  men,  and  his  advice  to  them  was  to 
stick  together  and  promote  communication  in  their  own  neigh- 
borhood— not  to  go  abroad  with  their  speculations.  If  any  had 
done  so,  he  advised  them  to  get  their  money  back  as  fast  as  they 
could,  for  if  they  did  not  they  would  not  get  it  at  all.  He  in- 
formed the  company,  at  the  same  time,  of  Ms  earliest  holding  of 
railway  shares ;  it  was  in  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway, 
and  the  number  he  held  was  three — "  a  very  large  capital  for 
Mm  to  possess  at  the  time."  But  a  Stockton  friend  was  anxious 
to  possess  a  share,  and  he  sold  him  one  at  a  premium  of  33*. ;  he 
supposed  he  had  been  about  the  first  man  in  England  to  sell  a 
railway  share  at  a  premium. 

During  1845,  his  son's  omce  in  Great  George  Street,  Westmin- 
ster, was  crowded  with  persons  of  various  conditions  seeking  in- 
terviews, presenting  very  much  the  appearance  of  the  levee  of  a 
minister  of  state.  The  burly  figure  of  Mr.  Hudson,  the  "  Railway 
King,"  surrounded  by  an  admiring  group  of  followers,  was  often 
to  be  seen  there ;  and  a  still  more  interesting  person,  in  the  esti- 
mation of  many,  was  George  Stephenson,  dressed  in  black,  his 
coat  of  somewhat  old-fashioned  cut,  with  square  pockets  in  the 
tails.  He  wore  a  white  neckcloth,  and  a  large  bunch  of  seals 
was  suspended  from  his  watch-ribbon.  Altogether,  he  presented 
an  appearance  of  health,  intelligence,  and  good  humor,  that  it 
gladdened  one  to  look  upon  in  that  sordid,  selfish,  and  eventually 
ruinous  saturnalia  of  railway  speculation. 


408  RAGE  FOR  DIRECT  LINES.  [PART  II. 

Being  still  the  consulting  engineer  of  several  of  the  older  com- 
panies, he  necessarily  appeared  before  Parliament  in  support  of 
their  branches  and  extensions.  In  1845  his  name  was  associated 
with  that  of  his  son  as  the  engineer  of  the  Southport  and  Preston 
Junction.  In  the  same  session  he  gave  evidence  in  favor  of  the 
Syston  and  Peterborough  branch  of  the  Midland  Railway ;  but 
his  principal  attention  was  confined  to  the  promotion  of  the  line 
from  Newcastle  to  Berwick,  in  which  he  had  never  ceased  to  take 
the  deepest  interest. 

Powers  were  granted  by  Parliament  in  1845  to  construct  not 
less  than  2883  miles  of  new  railways  in  Britain,  at  an  expendi- 
ture of  about  forty-four  millions  sterling !  Yet  the  mania  was 
not  appeased ;  for  in  the  following  session  of  1846,  appli cations 
were  made  to  Parliament  for  powers  to  raise  £389,000,000  ster- 
ling for  the  construction  of  farther  lines ;  and  they  were  actual- 
ly conceded  to  the  extent  of  4790  miles  (including  60  miles  of 
tunnels),  at  a  cost  of  about  £120,000,000  sterling.*  During  this 
session  Mr.  Stephenson  appeared  as  engineer  for  only  one  new 
line — the  Buxton,  Macclesfield,  Congleton,  and  Crewe  Railway — 
a  line  in  which,  as  a  coal-owner,  he  was  personally  interested ; 
and  of  three  branch*Lines  in  connection  with  existing  companies 
for  which  he  had  long  acted  as  engineer.  At  the  same  period 
all  the  leading  professional  men  were  fully  occupied,  some  of 
them  appearing  as  consulting  engineers  for  upward  of  thirty 
lines  each ! 

One  of  the  features  of  this  mania  was  the  rage  for  "  direct 
lines"  which  every  where  displayed  itself.  There  were  "  Direct 
Manchester,"  "  Direct  Exeter,"  "  Direct  York,"  and,  indeed,  new 
direct  lines  between  most  of  the  large  towns.  The  Marquis  of 
Bristol,  speaking  in  favor  of  the  "  Direct  Norwich  and  London" 
project  at  a  public  meeting  at  Haverhill,  said, "  If  necessary,  they 
might  make  a  tunnel  beneath  his  very  drawing-room  rather  than 
be  defeated  in  their  undertaking !"  And  the  Rev.  F.  Litclifield, 
at  a  meeting  in  Banbury  on  the  subject  of  a  line  to  that  town, 
said, "  He  had  laid  down  for  himself  a  limit  to  his  approbation 

*  On  the  17th  of  November,  1845,  Mr.  Spackman  published  a  list  of  the  lines  pro- 
jected (many  of  which  were  not  afterward  prosecuted),  from  which  it  appeared  that 
there  were  then  620  new  railway  projects  before  the  public,  requiring  a  capital  of 
£563,203,000. 


CHAP.  XVI.]     THE  LEGISLATURE  AND  THE  MANIA.  409 

of  railways — at  least  of  such  as  approached  the  neighborhood 
with  which  he  was  connected — and  that  limit  was,  that  he  did  not 
wish  them  to  approach  any  nearer  to  him  than  to  run  through  his 
bedroom,  with  the  bedposts  for  a  station  /"  How  different  was 
the  spirit  which  influenced  these  noble  lords  and  gentlemen  but 
a  few  years  before ! 

The  course  adopted  by  Parliament  in  dealing  with  the  multi- 
tude of  railway  bills  applied  for  during  the  prevalence  of  the 
mania  was  as  irrational  as  it  proved  unfortunate.  The  want  of 
foresight  displayed  by  both  houses  in  obstructing  the  railway  sys- 
tem so  long  as  it  was  based  upon  sound  commercial  principles 
was  only  equaled  by  the  fatal  facility  with  which  they  now  grant- 
ed railway  projects  based  upon  the  wildest  speculation.  Parlia- 
ment interposed  no  check,  laid  down  no  principle,  furnished  no 
guidance,  for  the  conduct  of  railway  projectors,  but  left  every 
company  to  select  its  own  locality,  determine  its  own  line,  and 
fix  its  own  gauge.  No  regard  was  paid  to  the  claims  of  existing 
companies,  which  had  already  expended  so  large  an  amount  in 
the  formation  of  useful  railways;  and  speculators  were  left  at 
liberty  to  project  and  carry  out  lines  almost  parallel  with  theirs. 

The  House  of  Commons  became  thoroughly  influenced  by  the 
prevailing  excitement..  Even  the  Board  of  Trade  began  to  favor 
the  views  of  the  new  and  reckless  school  of  engineers.  In  their 
"  Keport  on  the  Lines  projected  in  the  Manchester  and  Leeds 
District,"  they  promulgated  some  remarkable  views  respecting 
gradients,  declaring  themselves  in  favor  of  the  "  undulating  sys- 
tem." They  there  stated  that  lines  of  an  undulating  character 
"  which  gave  gradients  of  1  in  70  or  1  in  80  distributed  over  them 
in  short  lengths,  may  be  positively  better  lines,  i.  e.,  more  suscept- 
ible of  cheap. and  expeditious  working,  than  others  which  have 
nothing  steeper  than  1  in  100  or  1  in  120 !"  They  concluded  by 
reporting  in  favor  of  the  line  which  exhibited  the  worst  gradients 
and  the  sharpest  curves,  chiefly  on  the  ground  that  it  could  be 
constructed  for  less  money. 

Sir  Robert  Pee!  took  occasion,  when  speaking  in  favor  of  the 
continuance  of  the  Railways  Department  of  the  Board  of  Trade, 
to  advert  to  this  report  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  4th  of 
March  following,  as  containing  "  a  novel  and  highly  important 
view  on  the  subject  of  gradients,  which,  he  was  certain,  never 


410  LEGISLATIVE  BUNGLING.  [PART  II. 

could  have  been  taken  by  any  committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, however  intelligent ;"  and  he  might  have  added,  that  the 
more  intelligent,  the  less  likely  would  they  be  to  arrive  at  any 
such  conclusion.  When  George  Stephenson  saw  this  report  of 
the  premier's  speech  in  the  newspapers  of  the  following  morning, 
he  went  forthwith  to  his  son,  and  asked  him  to  write  a  letter  to 
Sir  Robert  Peel  on  the  subject.  He  saw  clearly  that  if  such 
views  were  adopted,  the  utility  and  economy  of  railways  would 
be  seriously  curtailed.  "  These  members  of  Parliament,"  said  he, 
"  are  now  as  much  disposed  to  exaggerate  the  powers  of  the  loco- 
motive as  they  were  to  underestimate  them  but  a  few  years  ago." 
Robert  accordingly  wrote  a  letter  for  his  father's  signature,  em- 
bodying the  views  which  he  so  strongly  entertained  as  to  the  im- 
portance of  flat  gradients,  and  referring  to  the  experiments  con- 
ducted by  him  many  years  before  in  proof  of  the  great  loss  of 
working  power  which  was  incurred  on  a  line  of  steep  as  com- 
pared with  easy  gradients.  It  was  clear,  from  the  tone  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel's  speech  in  a  subsequent  debate,  that  he  had  careful- 
ly read  and  considered  Mr.  Stephenson's  practical  observations  on 
the  subject,  though  it  did  not  appear  that  he  had  come  to  any 
definite  conclusion  thereon  farther  than  that  he  strongly  approved 
of  the  Trent  Valley  Railway,  by  which  Tarn  worth  would  be  placed 
upon  a  direct  main  line  of  communication. 

The  result  of  the  labors  of  Parliament  was  a  tisue  of  legislative 
bungling,  involving  enormous  loss  to  the  nation.  Railway  bills 
were  granted  in  heaps.  Two  hundred  and  seventy-two  addition- 
al acts  were  passed  in  1846.  Some  authorized  the  construction 
of  lines  running  almost  parallel  with  existing  railways,  in  order 
to  afford  the  public  "  the  benefits  of  unrestricted  competition." 
Locomotive  and  atmospheric  lines,  broad-gauge  and  narrow-gauge 
lines,  were  granted  without  hesitation.  Committees  decided  with- 
out judgment  and  without  discrimination ;  and  in  the  scramble 
for  bills,  the  most  unscrupulous  were  usually  the  most  successful. 
As  an  illustration  of  the  legislative  folly  of  the  period,  Robert 
Stephenson,  speaking  at  Toronto,  in  Upper  Canada,  some  years 
later,  adduced  the  following  instances : 

"There  was  one  district  through  which  it  was  proposed  to  run 
two  lines,  and  there  was  no  other  difficulty  between  them  than  the 
simple  rivalry  that,  if  one  got  a  charter,  the  other  might  also.  But 


CHAP.  XVI.]  GEORGE  HUDSON. 


here,  where  the  committee  might  have  given  both,  they  gave  nei- 
ther. In  another  instance,  two  lines  were  projected  through  a  bar- 
ren country,  and  the  committee  gave  the  one  which  afforded  the 
least  accommodation  to  the  public.  In  another,  where  two  lines 
were  projected  to  run,  merely  to  shorten  the  time  by  a  few  minutes, 
leading  through  a  mountainous  country,  the  committee  gave  both. 
So  that,  where  the  committee  might  have  given  both,  they  gave 
neither,  and  where  they  should  have  given  neither,  they  gave  both." 

Among  the  many  ill  effects  of  the  mania,  one  of  the  worst  was 
that  it  introduced  a  low  tone  of  morality  into  railway  transac- 
tions. The  bad  spirit  which  had  been  evoked  by  it  unhappily  ex- 
tended to  the  commercial  classes,  and  many  of  the  most  flagrant 
swindles  of  recent  times  had  their  origin  in  the  year  1845. 
Those  who  had  suddenly  gained  large  sums  without  labor,  and 
also  without  honor,  were  too  ready  to  enter  upon  courses  of  the 
wildest  extravagance  ;  and  a  false  style  of  living  arose,  the  pois- 
onous influence  of  which  extended  through  all  classes.  Men  be- 
gan to  look  upon  railways  as  instruments  to  job  with.  Persons 
sometimes  possessing  information  respecting  railways,  but  more 
frequently  possessing  none,  got  upon  boards  for  the  purpose  of 
promoting  their  individual  objects,  often  in  a  very  unscrupulous 
manner;  land-owners,  to  promote  branch  lines  through  their 
property  ;  speculators  in  shares,  to  trade  upon  the  exclusive  in- 
formation which  they  obtained;  while  some  directors  were  ap- 
pointed through  the  influence  mainly  of  solicitors,  contractors, 
or  engineers,  who  used  them  as  tools  to  serve  their  own  ends. 
In  this  way  the  unfortunate  proprietors  were  in  many  cases  be- 
trayed, and  their  property  was  shamefully  squandered,  much  to 
the  discredit  of  the  railway  system. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  celebrities  of  the  mania  was  George 
Hudson,  of  York.  He  was  a  man  of  some  local  repute  in  that 
city  when  the  line  between  Leeds  and  York  was  projected.  His 
views  as  to  railways  were  then  extremely  moderate,  and  his  main 
object  in  joining  the  undertaking  was  to  secure  for  York  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  best  railway  communication.  The  company  was 
not  very  prosperous  at  first,  and  during  the  years  1840  and  1841 
the  shares  had  greatly  sunk  in  value.  Mr.  Alderman  Meek,  the 
first  chairman,  having  retired,  Mr.  Hudson  was  elected  in  his 
stead,  and  he  very  shortly  contrived  to  pay  improved  dividends  to 


412  GEORGE  HUDSON.  [PART  II. 

the  proprietors,  who  asked  no  questions.  Desiring  to  extend  the 
field  of  his  operations,  he  proceeded  to  lease  the  Leeds  and  Selby 
Railway  at  five  per  cent.  That  line  had  hitherto  been  a  losing 
concern ;  so  its  owners  readily  struck  a  bargain  with  Mr.  Hud- 
son, and  sounded  his  praises  in  all  directions.  He  increased  the 
dividends  on  the  York  and  North  Midland  shares  to  ten  per 
cent.,  and  began  to  be  cited  as  the  model  of  a  railway  chairman. 

He  next  interested  himself  in  the  North  Midland  Eailway, 
where  he  appeared  in  the  character  of  a  reformer  of  abuses. 
The  North  Midland  shares  also  had  gone  to  a  heavy  discount, 
and  the  shareholders  were  accordingly  desirous  of  securing  his 
services.  They  elected  him  a  director.  His  bustling,  pushing, 
persevering  character  gave  him  an  influential  position  at  the 
board,  and  he  soon  pushed  the  old  members  from  their  stools. 
He  labored  hard,  at  much  personal  inconvenience,  to  help  the 
concern  out  of  its  difficulties,  and  he  succeeded.  The  new  di- 
rectors, recognizing  his  power,  elected  him  their  chairman. 

Railways  revived  in  1842,  and  public  confidence  in  them  as 
profitable  investments  was  gradually  increasing.  Mr.  Hudson 
had  the  benefit  of  this  growing  prosperity.  The  dividends  in  his 
lines  improved,  and  the  shares  rose  in  value.  The  Lord-mayor 
of  York  began  to  be  quoted  as  one  of  the  most  capable  of  rail- 
way directors.  Stimulated  by  his  success  and  encouraged  by  his 
followers,  he  struck  out  or  supported  many  new  projects — a  line 
to  Scarborough,  a  line  to  Bradford,  lines  in  the  Midland  districts, 
and  lines  to  connect  York  with  Newcastle  and  Edinburg.  He 
was  elected  chairman  of  the  Newcastle  and  Darlington  Railway ; 
and  when — in  order  to  complete  the  continuity  of  the  main  line 
of  communication — it  was  found  necessary  to  secure  the  Durham 
junction,  which  was  an  important  link  in  the  chain,  he  and  George 
Stephenson  boldly  purchased  that  railway  between  them,  at  the 
price  of  £88,500.  It  was  an  exceedingly  fortunate  purchase  for 
the  company,  to  whom  it  was  worth  double  the  money.  The  act, 
though  not  strictly  legal,  proved  successful  in  the  issue,  and  was 
much  lauded.  Thus  encouraged,  Mr.  Hudson  proceeded  to  buy 
the  Brandling  Junction  line  for  £500,000  in  his  own  name — an 
operation  at  the  time  regarded  as  equally  favorable,  though  he 
was  afterward  charged  with  appropriating  1600  of  the  shares 
created  for  the  purchase,  when  worth  £21  premium  each.  The 


CHAP.  XVI.]  AD ULA  TION  OF  "  THE  RAIL  WA  Y  KING."  413 

Great  North  of  England  line  being  completed,  Mr.  Hudson  had 
thus  secured  the  entire  line  of  communication  from  York  to 
Newcastle,  and  the  route  was  opened  to  the  public  in  June,  1844. 
On  that  occasion  Newcastle  eulogized  Mr.  Hudson  in  its  choicest 
local  eloquence,  and  he  was  pronounced  to  be  the  greatest  bene- 
factor the  district  had  ever  known. 

The  adulation  which  followed  Mr.  Hudson  would  have  intoxi- 
cated a  stronger  and  more  self-denying  man.  He  was  pronounced 
the  man  of  the  age,  and  hailed  as  "the  Railway  King."  The 
highest  test  by  which  the  shareholders  judged  him  was  the  divi- 
dends that  he  paid,  though  subsequent  events  proved  that  these 
dividends  were  in  many  cases  delusive,  intended  only  "  to  make 
things  pleasant."  The  policy,  however,  had  its  effect.  The  shares 
in  all  the  lines  of  which  he  was  chairman  went  to  a  premium, 
and  then  arose  the  temptation  to  create  new  shares  in  branch  and 
extension  lines,  often  worthless,  which  were  issued  at  a  premium 
also.  Thus  he  shortly  found  himself  chairman  of  nearly  600 
miles  of  railway,  extending  from  Rugby  to  Newcastle,  and  at  the 
head  of  numerous  new  projects,  by  means  of  which  paper-wealth 
could  be  created  as  it  were  at  pleasure.  He  held  in  his  own 
hands  almost  the  entire  administrative  power  of  the  companies 
over  which  he  presided :  he  was  chairman,  board,  manager,  and 
all.  His  admirers  for  the  time,  inspired  sometimes  by  gratitude 
for  past  favors,  but  of tener  by  the  expectation  of  favors  to  come, 
supported  him  in  all  his  measures.  At  the  meetings  of  the  com- 
panies, if  any  suspicious  shareholder  ventured  to  put  a  question 
about  the  accounts,  he  was  snubbed  by  the  chair  and  hissed  by 
the  proprietors.  The  Railway  King  was  voted  praises,  testimo- 
nials, and  surplus  shares  alike  liberally,  and  scarcely  a  word 
against  him  could  find  a  hearing.  He  was  equally  popular  out- 
side the  circle  of  railway  proprietors.  His  entertainments  at  Al- 
bert Gate  were  crowded  by  sycophants,  many  of  them  titled ;  and 
he  went  his  rounds  of  visits  among  the  peerage  like  a  prince. 

Of  course  Mr.  Hudson  was  a  great  authority  on  railway  ques- 
tions in  Parliament,  to  which  the  burgesses  of  Sunderland  had 
sent  him.  His  experience  of  railways,  still  little  understood, 
though  the  subject  of  so  much  legislation,  gave  value  and  weight 
to  his  opinions,  and  in  many  respects  he  was  a  useful  member. 
During  the  first  years  of  his  membership  he  was  chiefly  occupied 


414:  STEPHENSON  AND  HUDSON  TESTIMONIALS.     [PAET  II. 

in  passing  the  railway  bills  in  which  he  was  more  particularly 
interested ;  and  in  the  session  of  1845,  when  he  was  at  the  height 
of  his  power,  it  was  triumphantly  said  of  him  that  "  he  walked 
quietly  through  Parliament  with  some  sixteen  railway  bills  under 
his  arm." 

One  of  these  bills,  however,  was  the  subject  of  a  severe  con- 
test— we  mean  that  empowering  the  construction  of  the  railway 
from  Newcastle  to  Berwick.  It  was  almost  the  only  bill  in  which 
George  Stephenson  was  concerned  that  year.  Mr.  Hudson  dis- 
played great  energy  in  supporting  the  measure,  and  he  worked 
hard  to  insure  its  success  both  in  and  out  of  Parliament ;  but  he 
himself  attributed  the  chief  merit  to  Stephenson.  He  according- 
ly suggested  to  the  shareholders  that  they  should  present  the  en- 
gineer with  some  fitting  testimonial  in  recognition  of  his  sendees. 
Indeed,  a  Stephenson  Testimonial  had  long  been  spoken  of,  and 
a  committee  was  formed  for  raising  subscriptions  for  the  purpose 
as  early  as  the  year  1839.  Mr.  Hudson  now  revived  the  subject, 
and  appealed  to  the  Newcastle  and  Darlington,  the  Midland,  and 
the  York  and  North  Midland  Companies,  who  unanimously  adopt- 
ed the  resolutions  which  he  proposed  to  them  amid  "loud  ap- 
plause," but  there  the  matter  ended. 

The  Hudson  Testimonial  was  a  much  more  taking  thing,  for 
Hudson  had  it  in  his  power  to  allot  shares  (selling  at  a  premium) 
to  his  adulators.  But  Stephenson  pretended  to  fill  no  man's 
pocket  with  premiums ;  he  was  no  creator  of  shares,  and  could 
not  therefore  work  upon  shareholders'  gratitude  for  "favors  to 
come."  The  proposed  testimonial  to  him  accordingly  ended  with 
resolutions  and  speeches.  The  York,  Newcastle,  and  Berwick 
Board  —  in  other  words,  Mr.  Hudson  —  did  indeed  mark  their 
sense  of  the  "  great  obligations"  which  they  were  under  to  George 
Stephenson  for  helping  to  carry  their  bill  through  Parliament  by 
making  him  an  allotment  of  thirty  of  the  new  shares  authorized 
by  the  act.  But,  as  afterward  appeared,  the  chairman  had  at  the 
same  time  appropriated  to  himself  not  fewer  than  10,894  of  the 
same  shares,  the  premiums  on  which  were  then  worth,  in  the 
market,  about  £145,000.  This  shabby  manner  of  acknowledging 
the  gratitude  of  the  company  to  their  engineer  was  strongly  re- 
sented by  Stephenson  at  the  time,  and  a  coolness  took  place  be- 
tween him  and  Hudson  which  was  never  wholly  removed,  though 


CHAP.  XVI.]          FALL  OF  THE  "RAILWAY  KING."  415 

they  afterward  shook  hands,  and  Stephenson  declared  that  all 
was  forgotten. 

Mr.  Hudson's  brief  reign  drew  to  a  close.  The  saturnalia  of 
1845  was  followed  by  the  usual  reaction.  Shares  went  down 
faster  than  they  had  gone  up ;  the  holders  of  them  hastened  to 
sell  in  order  to  avoid  payment  of  the  calls,  and  many  found  them- 
selves ruined.  Then  came  repentance,  and  a  sudden  return  to 
virtue.  The  betting  man,  who,  temporarily  abandoning  the  turf 
for  the  share-market,  had  played  his  heaviest  stake  and  lost ;  the 
merchant  who  had  left  his  business,  and  the  doctor  who  had  neg- 
lected his  patients,  to  gamble  in  railway  stock  and  been  ruined ; 
the  penniless  knaves  and  schemers  who  had  speculated  so  reck- 
lessly and  gained  so  little ;  the  titled  and  fashionable  people,  who 
had  bowed  themselves  so  low  before  the  idol  of  the  day,  and 
found  themselves  deceived  and  "  done ;"  the  credulous  small  cap- 
italists, who,  dazzled  by  premiums,  had  invested  their  all  in  rail- 
way shares,  and  now  saw  themselves  stripped  of  every  thing,  were 
grievously  enraged,  and  looked  about  them  for  a  victim.  In  this 
temper  were  shareholders  when,  at  a  railway  meeting  in  York, 
some  pertinent  questions  were  put  to  the  Eailway  King.  His 
replies  were  not  satisfactory,  and  the  questions  were  pushed  home. 
Mr.  Hudson  became  confused.  Angry  voices  rose  in  the  meet- 
ing. A  committee  of  investigation  was  appointed.  The  golden 
calf  was  found  to  be  of  brass,  and  hurled  down,  Hudson's  own 
toadies  and  sycophants  eagerly  joining  the  chorus  of  popular  in- 
dignation. Similar  proceedings  shortly  after  followed  at  the 
meetings  of  other  companies,  and  the  bubbles  having  by  that 
time  burst,  the  Railway  Mania  thus  came  to  an  ignominious  end. 

While  the  mania  was  at  its  height  in  England,  railways  were 
also  being  extended  abroad,  and  George  Stephenson  continued  to 
be  invited  to  give  the  directors  of  foreign  undertakings  the  ben- 
efit of  his  advice.  One  of  the  most  agreeable  of  his  excursions 
with  that  object  was  his  third  visit  to  Belgium  in  1845.  His 
special  purpose  was  to  examine  the  proposed  line  of  the  Sambre 
and  Meuse  Railway,  for  which  a  concession  had  been  granted  by 
the  Belgian  Legislature.  Arrived  on  the  ground,  he  went  care- 
fully over  the  entire  length  of  the  proposed  line,  by  Couvins, 
through  the  Forest  of  Ardennes,  to  Rocroi,  across  the  French 
frontier,  examining  the  bearing  of  the  coal-field,  the  slate  and 


41 6  BANQ UET  AT  BR USSELS.  [PART  II. 

marble  quarries,  and  the  numerous  iron-mines  in  existence  be- 
tween the  Sambre  and  the  Meuse,  as  well  as  carefully  exploring 
the  ravines  which  extended  through  the  district,  in  order  to  satis- 
fy himself  that  the  best  possible  route  had  been  selected.  Ste- 
phenson  was  delighted  with  the  novelty  of  the  journey,  the  beau- 
ty of  the  scenery,  and  the  industry  of  the  population.  His  com- 
panions were  entertained  by  his  ample  and  varied  stores  of  prac- 
tical information  on  all  subjects,  and  his  conversation  was  full  of 
reminiscences  of  his  youth,  on  which  he  always  delighted  to  dwell 
when  in  the  society  of  his  more  intimate  friends.  The  journey 
was  varied  by  a  visit  to  the  coal-mines  near  Jemappe,  where  Ste- 
phenson  examined  with  interest  the  mode  adopted  by  the  Belgian 
miners  of  draining  the  pits,  inspecting  their  engines  and  brake- 
ing  machines,  so  familiar  to  him  in  early  life. 

The  engineers  of  Belgium  took  the  opportunity  of  the  engi- 
neer's visit  to  invite  him  to  a  magnificent  banquet  at  Brussels. 
The  Public  Hall,  in  which  they  entertained  him,  was  gayly  deco- 
rated with  flags,  prominent  among  which  was  the  Union  Jack,  in 
honor  of  their  distinguished  guest.  A  handsome  marble  pedes- 
tal, ornamented  with  his  bust  crowned  with  laurels,  stood  at  one 
end  of  the  room.  The  chair  was  occupied  by  M.  Massui,  the 
Chief  Director  of  the  National  Kailways  of  Belgium ;  and  the 
most  eminent  scientific  men  of  the  kingdom  were  present.  Their 
reception  of  the  "  father  of  railways"  was  of  the  most  enthusias- 
tic description.  Stephenson  was  greatly  pleased  with  the  enter- 
tainment. Not  the  least  interesting  incident  of  the  evening  was 
his  observing,  when  the  dinner  was  about  half  over,  the  model  of 
a  locomotive  engine  placed  upon  the  centre  table,  under  a  trium- 
phal arch.  Turning  suddenly  to  his  friend  Sopwith,  he  ex- 
claimed, " Do  you  see  the  ' Rocket?' "  It  was,  indeed,  the  model 
of  that  celebrated  locomotive ;  and  the  engineer  prized  the  deli- 
cate compliment  thus  paid  him  perhaps  more  than  all  the  enco- 
niums  of  the  evening. 

The  next  day  (April  5th)  "King  Leopold  invited  him  to  a  pri- 
vate interview  at  the  palace.  Accompanied  by  Mr.  Sopwith,  he 
proceeded  to  Laaken,  and  was  cordially  received  by  his  majesty. 
The  king  immediately  entered  into  familiar  conversation  with 
him,  discussing  first  the  railway  project  which  had  been  the  ob- 
ject of  his  visit  to  Belgium,  and  then  the  structure  of  the  Belgian 


CHAP.  XVI.]         INTERVIEW  WITH  KING  LEOPOLD.  417 

coal-fields,  his  majesty  expressing  his  sense  of  the  great  import- 
ance of  economy  in  a  fuel  which  had  become  indispensable  to 
the  comfort  and  well-being  of  society,  which  was  the  basis  of  all 
manufactures,  and  the  vital  power  of  railway  locomotion.  The 
subject  was  always  a  favorite  one  with  George  Stephenson,  and, 
encouraged  by  the  king,  he  proceeded  to  explain  to  him  the  geo- 
logical structure  of  Belgium,  the  original  formation  of  coal,  its 
subsequent  elevation  by  volcanic  forces,  and  the  vast  amount  of 
denudation.  In  describing  the  coal-beds  he  used  his  hat  as  a  sort 
of  model  to  illustrate  his  meaning,  and  the  eyes  of  the  king  were 
fixed  upon  it  as  he  proceeded  with  his  description.  The  conver- 
sation then  passed  to  the  rise  and  progress  of  trade  arid  manufac- 
tures, Stephenson  pointing  out  how  closely  they  every  where  fol- 
lowed the  coal,  being  mainly  dependent  upon  it,  as  it  were,  for 
their  very  existence. 

The  king  seemed  greatly  pleased  with  the  interview,  and  at  its 
close  expressed  himself  as  obliged  by  the  interesting  information 
which  the  engineer  had  communicated.  Shaking  hands  cordial- 
ly with  both  the  gentlemen,  and  wishing  them  success  in  their 
important  undertakings,  he  bade  them  adieu.  As  they  were  leav- 
ing the  palace,  Stephenson,  bethinking  him  of  the  model  by  which 
he  had  just  been  illustrating  the  Belgian  coal-fields,  said  to  his 
friend,  "  By-the-by,  Sopwith,  I  was  afraid  the  king  would  see  the 
inside  of  my  hat ;  it's  a  shocking  bad  one !" 

George  Stephenson  paid  a  farther  visit  to  Belgium  in  the  course 
of  the  same  year,  on  the  business  of  the  West  Flanders  Kailway, 
and  he  had  scarcely  returned  from  it  ere  he  was  requested  to  pro- 
ceed to  Spain,  for  the  purpose  of  examining  and  reporting  upon 
a  scheme  then  on  foot  for  constructing  "  the  Royal  North  of  Spain 
Railway."  A  concession  had  been  made  by  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment of  a  line  of  railway  from  Madrid  to  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and 
a  numerous  staff  of  engineers  was  engaged  in  surveying  the  pro- 
posed line.  The  directors  of  the  company  had  declined  making 
the  necessary  deposits  until  more  favorable  terms  had  been  se- 
cured ;  and  Sir  Joshua  Walmsley,  on  their  part,  was  about  to  visit 
Spam  and  press  the  government  on  the  subject.  George  Stephen- 
son,  whom  he  consulted,  was  alive  to  the  difficulties  of  the  office 
which  Sir  Joshua  was  induced  to  undertake,  and  offered  to  be  his 
companion  and  adviser  on  the  occasion,  declining  to  receive  any 


418  PYRENEAN  PASTORAL.  [PART  H. 

recompense  beyond  the  simple  expenses  of  the  journey.  He  could 
only  arrange  to  be  absent  for  six  weeks,  and  he  set  out  from  En- 
gland about  the  middle  of  September,  1845. 

The  party  was  joined  at  Paris  by  Mr.  Mackenzie,  the  contract- 
or for  the  Orleans  and  Tours  Railway,  then  in  course  of  construc- 
tion, who  took  them  over  the  works  and  accompanied  them  as  far 
as  Tours.  They  soon  reached  the  great  chain  of  the  Pyrenees, 
and  crossed  over  into  Spain.  It  was  on  a  Sunday  evening,  after  a 
long  day's  toilsome  journey  through  the  mountains,  that  the  party 
suddenly  found  themselves  in  one  of  those  beautiful  secluded  val- 
leys lying  amid  the  Western  Pyrenees.  A  small  hamlet  lay  be- 
fore them,  consisting  of  some  thirty  or  forty  houses  and  a  fine  old 
church.  The  sun  was  low  on  the  horizon,  and  under  the  wide 
porch,  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  church,  were  seated  nearly  all 
the  inhabitants  of  the  place.  They  were  dressed  in  their  holiday 
attire.  The  bright  bits  of  red  and  amber  color  in  the  dresses  of 
the  women,  and  the  gay  sashes  of  the  men,  formed  a  striking  pic- 
ture, on  which  the  travelers  gazed  in  silent  admiration.  It  was 
something  entirely  novel  and  unexpected.  Beside  the  villagers 
sat  two  venerable  old  men,  whose  canonical  hats  indicated  their 
quality  as  village  pastors.  Two  groups  of  young  women  and  chil- 
dren were  dancing  outside  the  porch  to  the  accompaniment  of  a 
simple  pipe,  and  within  a  hundred  yards  of  them  some  of  the 
youths  of  the  village  were  disporting  themselves  in  athletic  exer- 
cises, the  whole  being  carried  on  beneath  the  fostering  care  of  the 
old  church,  and  with  the  sanction  of  its  ministers.  It  was  a  beau- 
tiful scene,  and  deeply  moved  the  travelers  as  they  approached  the 
principal  group.  The  villagers  greeted  them  courteously,  sup- 
plied their  present  wants,  and  pressed  upon  them  some  fine  mel- 
ons, brought  from  their  adjoining  gardens.  George  Stephenson 
used  afterward  to  look  back  upon  that  simple  scene,  and  speak  of 
it  as  one  of  the  most  charming  pastorals  he  had  ever  witnessed. 

They  shortly  reached  the  site  of  the  proposed  railway,  pass- 
ing through  Irun,  St.  Sebastian,  St.  Andero,  and  Bilbao,  at  which 
places  they  met  deputations  of  the  principal  inhabitants  who  were 
interested  in  the  object  of  their  journey.  At  Eaynosa  Stephen- 
son  carefully  examined  the  mountain  passes  and  ravines  through 
which  a  railway  could  be  made.  He  rose  at  break  of  day,  and 
surveyed  until  the  darkness  set  in,  and  frequently  his  resting-place 


CHAP. XVI.]  SPANISH  RAILWAY  SCHEME.  419 

at  night  was  the  floor  of  some  miserable  hovel.  lie  was  thus  la- 
boriously occupied  for  ten  days,  after  which  he  proceeded  across 
the  province  of  Old  Castile  toward  Madrid,  surveying  as  he  went. 
The  proposed  plan  included  the  purchase  of  the  Castile  Canal,  and 
that  property  was  also  examined.  He  next  proceeded  to  El  Es- 
corial,  situated  at  the  foot  of  the  Guadarama  Mountains,  through 
which  he  found  it  would  be  necessary  to  construct  two  formida- 
ble tunnels ;  added  to  which,  he  ascertained  that  the  country  be- 
tween El  Escorial  and  Madrid  was  of  a  very  difficult  and  expen- 
sive character  to  work  through.  Taking  these  circumstances  into 
account,  and  looking  at  the  expected  traffic  on  the  proposed  line, 
Sir  Joshua  Walmsley,  acting  under  the  advice  of  Mr.  Stephenson, 
offered  to  construct  the  line  from  Madrid  to  the  Bay  of  Biscay 
on  condition  that  the  requisite  land  was  given  to  the  company  for 
the  purpose ;  that  they  should  be  allowed  every  facility  for  cut- 
ting such  timber  belonging  to  the  crown  as  might  be  required  for 
the  purposes  of  the  railway ;  and  also  that  the  materials  required 
from  abroad  for  the  construction  of  the  line  should  be  admitted 
free  of  duty.  In  return  for  these  concessions  the  company  of- 
fered to  clothe  and  feed  several  thousand  convicts  while  engaged 
in  the  execution  of  the  earthworks.  General  Narvaez,  afterward 
Duke  of  Yalencia,  received  Sir  Joshua  Walmsley  and  Mr.  Ste- 
phenson on  the  subject  of  their  proposition,  and  expressed  his 
willingness  to  close  with  them ;  but  it  was  necessary  that  other 
influential  parties  should  give  their  concurrence  before  the  scheme 
could  be  carried  into  effect.  The  deputation  waited  ten  days  to 
receive  the  answer  of  the  Spanish  government,  but  no  answer  of 
any  kind  was  vouchsafed.  The  authorities,  indeed,  invited  them 
to  be  present  at  a  Spanish  bull-fight,  but  that  was  not  quite  the 
business  Stephenson  had  gone  all  the  way  to  Spain  to  transact, 
and  the  offer  was  politely  declined.  The  result  was  that  Stephen- 
son  dissuaded  his  friend  from  making  the  necessary  deposit  at 
Madrid.  Besides,  he  had  by  this  time  formed  an  unfavorable 
opinion  of  the  entire  project,  and  considered  that  the  traffic  would 
not  amount  to  one  eighth  of  the  estimate. 

Mr.  Stephenson  was  now  anxious  to  be  in  England.     During 

the  journey  from  Madrid  he  often  spoke  with  affection  of  friends 

and  relatives,  and  when  apparently  absorbed  by  other  matters  he 

would  revert  to  what  he  thought  might  then  be  passing  at  home. 

DD 


420 


RETURN  TO  ENGLAND. 


[PART  II. 


Few  incidents  worthy  of  notice  occurred  on  the  journey  home- 
ward, but  one  may  be  mentioned.  While  traveling  in  an  open 
conveyance  between  Madrid  and  Vittoria,  the  driver  urged  his 
mules  down  hill  at  a  dangerous  pace.  He  was  requested  to  slack- 
en speed ;  but,  suspecting  his  passengers  to  be  afraid,  he  only  flog- 
ged the  brutes  into  a  still  more  furious  gallop.  Observing  this, 
Stephenson  coolly  said, "  Let  us  try  him  on  the  other  tack ;  tell 
him  to  show  us  the  fastest  pace  at  which  Spanish  mules  can  20." 

JT     .  IT  O 

The  rogue  of  a  driver,  when  he  found  his  tricks  of  no  avail,  pulled 
up  and  proceeded  at  a  more  moderate  speed  for  the  rest  of  the 
journey. 

Urgent  business  required  Mr.  Stephenson's  presence  in  London 
on  the  last  day  of  November.  They  traveled,  therefore,  almost 
continuously,  day  and  night,  and  the  fatigue  consequent  on  the 
journey,  added  to  the  privations  endured  by  the  engineer  while 
carrying  on  the  survey  among  the  Spanish  mountains,  began  to 
tell  seriously  on  his  health.  By  the  time  he  reached  Paris  he 
was  evidently  ill,  but  he  nevertheless  determined  on  proceeding. 
He  reached  Havre  in  time  for  the  Southampton  boat,  but  when 
on  board  pleurisy  developed  itself,  and  it  was  necessary  to  bleed 
him  freely.  After  a  few  weeks'  rest  at  home,  however,  he  grad- 
ually recovered,  though  his  health  remained  severely  shaken. 


CI^VCKOBS   WOKK8. 


.8TLE,  FBOM  THK  HIGH-LEVEL  BRTDOE.      [By  R.  P.  Leitch.] 


CHAPTER  XYIL 

ROBERT  STEPHENSON'S  CAREER — THE  STEPHENSONS  AND  BRUNEL — 

EAST    COAST    ROUTE    TO    SCOTLAND ROYAL    BORDER    BRIDGE,  BER- 
WICK— HIGH-LEVEL   BRIDGE,  NEWCASTLE. 

THE  career  of  George  Stephenson  was  drawing  to  a  close.  He 
had  for  some  time  been  gradually  retiring  from  the  more  active 
pursuit  of  railway  engineering,  and  confining  himself  to  the  pro- 
motion of  only  a  few  undertakings,  in  which  he  took  a  more 
than  ordinary  personal  interest.  In  1840,  when  the  extensive 
main  lines  in  the  Midland  districts  had  been  finished  and  opened 
for  traffic,  he  publicly  expressed  his  intention  of  withdrawing 
from  the  profession.  He  had  reached  sixty,  and,  having  spent 
the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  very  hard  work,  he  naturally  de- 
sired rest  and  retirement  in  his  old  age.  There  was  the  less  ne- 
cessity for  his  continuing  "  in  harness,"  as  Robert  Stephenson  was 
now  in  full  career  as  a  leading  railway  engineer,  and  his  father 
had  pleasure  in  handing  over  to  him,  with  the  sanction  of  the 
companies  concerned,  nearly  all  the  railway  appointments  which 
he  held. 

Robert  Stephenson  amply  repaid  his  father's  care.  The  sound 
education  of  which  he  had  laid  the  foundations  at  school,  im- 
proved by  his  subsequent  culture,  but  more  than  all  by  liis  father's 
example  of  application,  industry,  and  thoroughness  in  all  that  he 


422  ROBERT  STEPHENSON'S  CAREER.  [PAET  II. 

undertook,  told  powerfully  in  the  formation  of  his  character  not 
less  than  in  the  discipline  of  his  intellect.  His  father  had  early 
implanted  in  him  habits  of  mental  activity,  familiarized  him  with 
the  laws  of  mechanics,  and  carefully  trained  and  stimulated  his 
inventive  faculties,  the  first  great  fruits  of  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
were  exhibited  in  the  triumph  of  the  "  Rocket"  at  Rainhill.  "  I 
am  fully  conscious  in  my  own  mind,"  said  the  son  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Mechanical  Engineers  at  Newcastle  in  1858, "  how  greatly 
my  civil  engineering  has  been  regulated  and  influenced  by  the 
mechanical  knowledge  which  I  derived  directly  from  my  father ; 
and  the  more  my  experience  has  advanced,  the  more  convinced  I 
have  become  that  it  is  necessary  to  educate  an  engineer  in  the 
workshop.  That  is,  emphatically,  the  education  which  will  ren- 
der the  engineer  most  intelligent,  most  useful,  and  the  fullest  of 
resources  in  times  of  difficulty." 

Robert  Stephenson  was  but  twenty-six  years  old  when  the  per- 
formances of  the  "  Rocket"  established  the  practicability  of  steam 
locomotion  on  railways.  He  was  shortly  after  appointed  engi- 
neer of  the  Leicester  and  Swannington  Railway ;  after  which,  at 
his  father's  request,  he  was  made  joint  engineer  with  himself  in 
laying  out  the  London  and  Birmingham  Railway,  and  the  execu- 
tion of  that  line  was  afterward  intrusted  to  him  as  sole  engineer. 
The  stability  and  excellence  of  the  works  of  that  railway,  the  dif- 
ficulties which  had  been  successfully  overcome  in  the  course  of 
its  construction,  and  the  judgment  which  was  displayed  by  Rob- 
ert Stephenson  throughout  the  whole  conduct  of  the  undertaking 
to  its  completion,  established  his  reputation  as  an  engineer,  and 
his  father  could  now  look  with  confidence  and  pride  upon  his 
son's  achievements.  From  that  time  forward,  father  and  son 
worked  together  cordially,  each  jealous  of  the  other's  honor ;  and 
on  the  father's  retirement  it  was  generally  recognized  that,  in  the 
sphere  of  railways,  Robert  Stephenson  was  the  foremost  man, 
the  safest  guide,  and  the  most  active  worker. 

Robert  Stephenson  was  subsequently  appointed  engineer  of  the 
Eastern  Counties,  the  Northern  and  Eastern,  and  the  Blackwall 
Railways,  besides  many  lines  in  the  midland  and  southern  dis- 
tricts. When  the  speculation  of  1844  set  in,  lu's  services  were,  of 
course,  greatly  in  request.  Thus,  in  one  session,  we  find  him  en- 
gaged as  engineer  for  not  fewer  than  thirty-three  new  schemes. 


CHAP.  XVII.]  PARLIAMENTARY  ENGINEERING  WORK.  423 

Projectors  thought  themselves  fortunate  who  could  secure  his 
name,  and  he  had  only  to  propose  his  terms  to  obtain  them.  The 
work  which  he  performed  at  this  period  of  his  life  was  indeed 
enormous,  and  his  income  was  large  beyond  any  previous  instance 
of  engineering  gain.  But  much  of  the  labor  done  was  mere 
hackwork  of  a  very  uninteresting  character.  During  the  sittings 
of  the  committees  of  Parliament,  much  time  was  also  occupied 
in  consultations,  and  in  preparing  evidence  or  in  giving  it. 

The  crowded,  low-roofed  committee-rooms  of  the  old  houses  of 
Parliament  were  altogether  inadequate  to  accommodate  the  press 
of  perspiring  projectors  of  bills,  and  even  the  lobbies  were  some- 
times choked  with  them.  To  have  borne  that  noisome  atmos- 
phere and  heat  would  have  tested  the  constitutions  of  salaman- 
ders, and  engineers  were  only  human.  With  brains  kept  in  a 
state  of  excitement  during  the  entire  day,  no  wonder  their  ner- 
vous systems  became  unstrung.  Their  only  chance  of  refresh- 
ment was  during  an  occasional  rush  to  the  bun  and  sandwich 
stand  in  the  lobby,  though  sometimes  even  that  resource  failed 
them.  Then,  with  mind  and  body  jaded — probably  after  under- 
going a  series  of  consultations  upon  many  bills  after  the  rising 
of  the  committees — the  exhausted  engineers  would  seek  to  stim- 
ulate nature  by  a  late,  perhaps  a  heavy  dinner.  What  chance 
had  any  ordinary  constitution  of  surviving  such  an  ordeal  ?  The 
consequence  was,  that  stomach,  brain,  and  liver  were  alike  injured, 
and  hence  the  men  who  bore  the  heat  and  brunt  of  those  strug- 
gles— Stephenson,  Brunei,  Locke,  and  Errington — have  already 
all  died,  comparatively  young  men. 

In  mentioning  the  name  of  Brunei,  we  are  reminded  of  him  as 
the  principal  rival  and  competitor  of  Robert  Stephenson.  Both 
were  the  sons  of  distinguished  men,  and  both  inherited  the  fame 
and  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  their  fathers.  The  Stephensons 
were  inventive,  practical,  and  sagacious ;  the  Brunels  ingenious, 
imaginative,  and  daring.  The  former  were  as  thoroughly  En- 
glish in  their  characteristics  as  the  latter  perhaps  were  as  thor- 
oughly French.  The  fathers  and  the  sons  were  alike  successful 
in  their  works,  though  not  in  the  same  degree.  Measured  by 
practical  and  profitable  results,  the  Stephensons  were  unquestion- 
ably the  safer  men  to  follow. 

Robert  Stephenson  and  Isambard  Kingdom  Brunei  were  des- 


424:  THE  GREAT  WESTERN  GAUGE.  [PART  II. 

lined  often  to  come  into  collision  in  the  course  of  their  profes- 
sional life.  Their  respective  railway  districts  "marched"  with 
each  other,  and  it  became  their  business  to  invade  or  defend 
those  districts,  according  as  the  policy  of  their  respective  boards 
might  direct.  The  gauge  of  7  feet  fixed  by  Brunei  for  the  Great 
Western  Railway,  so  entirely  different  from  that  of  4  feet  8£ 
inches  adopted  by  the  Stephensons  on  the  Northern  and  Midland 
lines,*  was  from  the  first  a  great  cause  of  contention.  But  Brunei 
had  always  an  aversion  to  follow  any  man's  lead;  and  that  an- 
other engineer  had  fixed  the  gauge  of  a  railway,  or  built  a  bridge, 
or  designed  an  engine  in  one  way,  was  of  itself  often  a  sufficient 
reason  with  him  for  adopting  an  altogether  different  course. 
Eobert  Stephenson,  on  his  part,  though  less  bold,  was  more  prac- 
tical, preferring  to  follow  the  old  routes,  and  to  tread  in  the  safe 
steps  of  his  father. 

Mr.  Brunei,  however,  determined  that  the  Great  Western  should 
be  a  giant's  road,  and  that  traveling  should  be  conducted  upon  it 
at  double  speed.  His  ambition  was  to  make  the  lest  road  that 
imagination  could  devise,  whereas  the  main  object  of  the  Ste- 

*  The  original  width  of  the  coal  tram-roads  in  the  North  virtually  determined  the 
British  gauge.  It  was  the  width  of  the  ordinary  road-track — not  fixed  after  any 
scientific  theory,  but  adopted  simply  because  its  use  had  already  been  established. 
George  Stephenson  introduced  it  without  alteration  on  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
Kailway,  and  the  lines  subsequently  formed  in  that  district  were  laid  down  of  the  same 
width.  Stephenson  from  the  first  anticipated  the  general  extension  of  railways  through- 
out England,  and  one  of  the  ideas  with  which  he  started  was  the  essential  importance 
of  preserving  such  a  uniformity  as  would  admit  of  perfect  communication  between 
them.  When  consulted  about  the  gauge  of  the  Canterbury  and  Whitstable,  and  Lei- 
cester and  Swannington  Railways,  he  said,  "  Make  them  of  the  same  width :  though 
they  may  be  a  long  way  apart  now,  depend  upon  it  they  will  be  joined  together  some 
day. "  All  the  railways,  therefore,  laid  down  by  himself  and  his  assistants  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Manchester,  extending  from  thence  to  London  on  the  south,  and  to  Leeds 
on  the  east,  were  constructed  on  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  or  narrow  gauge.  Be- 
sides the  Great  Western  Railway,  where  the  gauge  adopted  was  seven  feet,  the  only 
other  line  on  which  a  broader  gauge  than  four  feet  eight  and  a  half  inches  was  adopt- 
ed was  the  Eastern  Counties,  where  it  was  five  feet,  Mr.  Braithwaite,  the  engineer, 
being  of  opinion  that  an  increase  of  three  and  a  half  inches  in  the  width  of  the  line 
would  afford  better  space  for  the  machinery  of  the  locomotive.  But  when  the  north- 
ern and  eastern  extension  of  the  same  line  was  formed,  which  was  to  work  into  the 
narrow-gauge  system  of  the  Midland  Railway,  Robert  Stephenson,  its  new  engineer, 
strongly  recommended  the  directors  of  the  Eastern  Counties  Line  to  alter  their  gauge 
accordingly,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  uniformity,  and  they  adopted  his  recommend- 
ation. 


CHAP.  XVII.]       ROBERT  STEPHENSON' S  CAUTION.  425 

phensons,  both  father  and  son,  was  to  make  a  road  that  would 
pay.  Although,  tried  by  the  Stephenson  test,  Brunei's  magnifi- 
cent road  was  a  failure  so  far  as  the  shareholders  in  the  Great 
Western  Company  were  concerned,  the  stimulus  which  his  am- 
bitious designs  gave  to  mechanical  invention  at  the  time  proved 
a  general  good.  The  narrow-gauge  engineers  exerted  themselves 
to  quicken  their  locomotives  to  the  utmost.  They  improved  and 
reimproved  them.  The  machinery  was  simplified  and  perfected. 
Outside  cylinders  gave  place  to  inside ;  the  steadier  and  more 
rapid  and  effective  action  of  the  engine  was  secured,  and  in  a  few 
years  the  highest  speed  on  railways  went  up  from  thirty  to  about 
fifty  miles  an  hour.  Fqr  this  rapidity  in  progress  we  are  in  no 
small  degree  indebted  to  the  stimulus  imparted  to  the  narrow- 
gauge  engineers  by  Mr.  Brunei. 

It  was  one  of  the  characteristics  of  Brunei  to  'believe  in  the 
success  of  the  schemes  for  which  he  was  professionally  engaged 
as  engineer,  and  he  proved  this  by  investing  his  savings  largely 
in  the  Great  Western  Railway,  in  the  South  Devon  Atmospheri- 
cal line,  and  in  the  Great  Eastern  steam-ship,  with  what  results 
are  well  known.  Robert  Stephenson,  on  the  contrary,  with  char- 
acteristic caution,  toward  the  latter  years  of  his  life  avoided  hold- 
ing unguaranteed  railway  shares ;  and  though  he  might  execute 
magnificent  structures,  such  as  the  Victoria  Bridge  across  the  St. 
Lawrence,  he  was  careful  not  to  embark  any  portion  of  his  own 
fortune  in  the  ordinary  capital  of  these  'concerns.  In  1845  he 
shrewdly  foresaw  the  inevitable  crash  that  was  about  to  succeed 
the  mania  of  that  year,  and  while  shares  were  still  at  a  premium 
he  took  the  opportunity  of  selling  out  all  that  he  held.  He  urged 
his  father  to  do  the  same  thing,  but  George's  reply  was  character- 
istic. "  No,"  said  he, "  I  took  my  shares  for  an  investment,  and 
not  to  speculate  with,  and  I  am  not  going  to  sell  them  now  be- 
cause people  have  gone  mad  about  railways."  The  consequence 
was,  that  he  continued  to  hold  the  £60,000  which  he  had  invest- 
ed in  the  shares  of  various  railways  until  Ins  death,  when  they 
were  at  once  sold  out  by  his  son,  though  at  a  great  depreciation 
on  their  original  cost. 

One  of  the  hardest  battles  fought  between  the  Stephensons 
and  Brunei  was  for  the  railway  between  Newcastle  and  Berwick, 
forming  part  of  the  great  East  Coast  route  to  Scotland.  As  early 


426  EAST  COAST  ROUTE  TO  SCOTLAND.  [PAST  II. 

as  1836  George  Stephenson  had  surveyed  two  lines  to  connect 
Edinburg  with  Newcastle :  one  by  Berwick  and  Dunbar  along 
the  coast,  and  the  other,  more  inland,  by  Carter  Fell,  up  the  vale 
of  the  Gala,  to  the  northern  capital.  Two  years  later  he  made 
a  farther  examination  of  the  intervening  country,  and  reported  in 
favor  of  the  coast  line.  The  inland  route,  however,  was  not  with- 
out its  advocates.  But  both  projects  lay  dormant  for  several 
years  longer,  until  the  completion  of  the  Midland  and  other  main 
lines  as  far  north  as  Newcastle  had  the  effect  of  again  reviving 
the  subject  of  the  extension  of  the  route  as  far  as  Edinburg. 

On  the  18th  of  June,  1844,  the  Newcastle  and  Darlington  line 
— an  important  link  of  the  great  main  .highway  to  the  north — 
was  completed  and  publicly  opened,  thus  connecting  the  Thames 
and  the  Tyne  by  a  continuous  line  of  railway.  On  that  day 
George  Stephenson  and  a  distinguished  party  of  railway  men 
traveled  by  express  train  from  London  to  Newcastle  in  about 
nine  hours.  It  was  a  great  event,  and  was  worthily  celebrated. 
The  population  of  Newcastle  held  holiday ;  and  a  banquet  given 
in  the  Assembly  Eooms  the  same  evening  assumed  the  form  of 
an  ovation  to  Mr.  Stephenson  and  his  son. 

After  the  opening  of  this  railway,  the  project  of  the  East  Coast 
line  from  Newcastle  to  Berwick  was  revived,  and  George  Ste- 
phenson, who  had  already  identified  himself  with  the  question, 
and  was  intimately  acquainted  with  every  foot  of  the  ground, 
was  again  called  upon -to  assist  the  promoters  with  his  judgment 
and  experience.  He  again  recommended  as  strongly  as  before 
the  line  he  had  previously  surveyed ;  and  on  its  being  adopted 
by  the  local  committee,  the  necessary  steps  were  taken  to  have 
the  scheme  brought  before  Parliament  in  the  ensuing  session. 
The  East  Coast  line  was  not,  however,  to  be  allowed  to  pass  with- 
out a  fight.  On  the  contrary,  it  had  to  encounter  as  stout  an  op- 
position as  Stephenson  had  ever  experienced. 

We  have  already  stated  that  about  this  time  the  plan  of  sub- 
stituting atmospheric  pressure  for  locomotive  steam-power  in  the 
working  of  railways  had  become  very  popular.  Many  eminent 
engineers  avowedly  supported  atmospheric  in  preference  to  loco- 
motive lines ;  and  many  members  of  Parliament,  headed  by  the 
prime  ministers,  were  strongly  disposed  in  their  favor.  Mr.  Bru- 
nei warmly  espoused  the  atmospheric  principle,  and  his  persua- 


CHAP.XVH.]  BRUNEI: s  PROPOSED  ATMOSPHERIC  LINE.     427 

sive  manner,  as  well  as  his  admitted  scientific  ability,  unquestion- 
ably exercised  considerable  influence  in  determining  the  views 
of  many  leading  memoers  of  both  houses.  Among  others,  Lord 
Ho  wick,  one  of  the  members  for  Northumberland,  advocated  the 
new  principle,  and,  possessing  great  local  influence,  he  succeeded 
in  forming  a  powerful  confederacy  of  the  landed  gentry  in  favor 
of  Brunei's  atmospheric  railway  through  the  country. 

George  Stephenson  could  not  brook  the  idea  of  seeing  the  lo- 
comotive, for  which  he  had  fought  so  many  stout  battles,  pushed 
to  one  side,  and  that  in  the  very  county  in  which  its  great  powers 
had  been  first  developed.  Nor  did  he  relish  the  appearance  of 
Mr.  Brunei  as  the  engineer  of  Lord  Howick's  scheme,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  line  which  had  occupied  his  thoughts  and  been  the 
object  of  his  strenuous  advocacy  for  so  many  years.  When  Ste- 
phenson first  met  Brunei  in  Newcastle,  he  good-naturedly  shook 
him  by  the  collar,  and  asked  "  what  business  he  had  north  of  the 
Tyne  ?"  George  gave  him  to  understand  that  they  were  to  have 
a  fair  stand-up  fight  for  the  ground,  and  shaking  hands  before 
the  battle  like  Englishmen,  they  parted  in  good-humor.  A  pub- 
lic meeting  was  held  at  Newcastle  in  the  following  December, 
when,  after  a  full  discussion  of  the  merits  of  the  respective  plans, 
Stephenson's  line  was  almost  unanimously  adopted  as  the  best. 

The  rival  projects  went  before  Parliament  in  1845,  and  a  se- 
vere contest  ensued.  The  display  of  ability  and  tactics  on  both 
sides  was  great.  Robert  Stephenson  was  examined  at  great 
length  as  to  the  merits  of  the  locomotive  line,  and  Brunei  at 
equally  great  length  as  to  the  merits  of  the  atmospheric.  Mr. 
Brunei,  in  his  evidence,  said  that,  after  numerous  experiments,  he 
had  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the  mechanical  contrivance  of 
the  atmospheric  system  was  perfectly  applicable,  and  he  believed 
that  it  would  likewise  be  more  economical  in  most  cases  than  lo- 
comotive power.  "  In  short,"  said  he, "  rapidity,  comfort,  safety, 
and  economy  are  its  chief  recommendations." 

Notwithstanding  the  promise  of  Mr.  Sergeant  Wrangham,  the 
counsel  for  Lord  Howick's  scheme,  that  the  Northumberland  at- 
mospheric was  to  be  "  a  respectable  line,  and  not  one  that  was  to 
be  converted  into  a  road  for  the  accommodation  of  the  coal-own- 
ers of  the  district,"  the  locomotive  again  triumphed.  The  Ste- 
phenson Coast  line  secured  the  approval  of  Parliament,  and  the 


428  INTERVIEW  WITH  LORD  HOWICK.  [PART  II. 

shareholders  in  the  Atmospheric  Company  were  happily  prevent- 
ed investing  their  capital  in  what  would  unquestionably  have 
proved  a  gigantic  blunder.  For,  less  than  three  years  later,  the 
whole  of  the  atmospheric  tubes  which  had  been  laid  down  on 
other  lines  were  pulled  up  and  the  materials  sold,  including  Mr. 
Brunei's  immense  tube  on  the  South  Devon  Railway* — to  make 
way  for  the  working  of  the  locomotive  engine.  George  Stephen- 
son's  first  verdict  of  "  It  won't  do"  was  thus  conclusively  con- 
firmed. 

Robert  Stephenson  used  afterward  to  describe  with  gusto  an 
interview  which  took  place  between  Lord  Howick  and  his  father, 
at  his  office  in  Great  George  Street,  during  the  progress  of  the 
bill  in  Parliament.  His  father  was  in  the  outer  office,  where  he 
used  to  spend  a  good  deal  of  his  spare  time,  occasionally  taking 
a  quiet  wrestle  with  a  friend  when  nothing  else  was  stirring,  f 
On  the  day  in  question,  George  was  standing  with  his  back  to 
the  fire,  when  Lord  Howick  called  to  see  Robert.  Oh !  thought 
George,  he  has  come  to  try  and  talk  Robert  over  about  that  at- 
mospheric gimcrack ;  but  I'll  tackle  his  lordship.  "  Come  in, 
my  lord,"  said  he ;  "  Robert's  busy ;  but  I'll  answer  your  purpose 
quite  as  well ;  sit  down  here,  if  you  please."  George  began, 
"  Now,  my  lord,  I  know  very  well  what  you  have  come  about : 
it's  that  atmospheric  line  in  the  North ;  I  will  show  you  in  less 
than  five  minutes  that  it  can  never  answer."  "  If  Mr.  Robert 
Stephenson  is  not  at  liberty,  I  can  call  again,"  said  his  lordship. 

*  The  atmospheric  lines  had  for  some  time  been  working  very  irregularly  and  very 
expensively.  Robert  Stephenson,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  T.  Sopwith,  F.  R.  S. ,  dated  the  8th 
of  January,  1846,  wrote :  "Since  my  return  [from  Italy]  I  have  learned  that  your 
atmospheric  friends  are  very  sickly.  A  slow  typhus  has'  followed  the  high  fever  I  left 
them  in  about  three  months  ago.  I  don't  anticipate,  however,  that  the  patient  will 
expire  suddenly.  There  is  every  appearance  of  the  case  being  a  protracted  one, 
though  a  fatal  termination  is  inevitable.  When  the  pipes  are  sold  by  auction,  I  in- 
tend to  buy  one  and  present  it  to  the  British  Museum. "  During  the  last  half  year 
of  the  atmospheric  experiment  on  the  South  Devon  line  in  1848,  the  expenditure  ex- 
ceeded the  gross  income  (£26,782)  by  £2487,  or  about  9f  per  cent,  excess  of  work- 
ing expenses  beyond  the  gross  receipts. 

t  "When  my  father  came  about  the  office,"  said  Robert,  "he  sometimes  did  not 
well  know  what  to  do  with  himself.  So  he  used  to  invite  Bidder  to  have  a  quiet 
wrestle  with  him,  for  old  acquaintance  sake.  And  the  two  wrestled  together  so  often, 
and  had  so  many  '  falls'  (sometimes  I  thought  they  would  bring  the  house  down  be- 
tween them),  that  they  broke  half  the  chairs  in  my  outer  office.  I  remember  once 
sending  my  father  in  a  joiner's  bill  of  about  £2  10s.  for  the  mending  of  broken  chairs." 


CHAP.XVIL]    NEWCASTLE  AND  BERWICK  RAILWAY.  429 

"  He's  certainly  occupied  on  important  business  just  at  present," 
was  George's  answer, "  but  I  can  tell  you  far  better  than  he  can 
what  nonsense  the  atmospheric  system  is :  Robert's  good-natured, 
you  see,  and  if  your  lordship  were  to  get  alongside  of  him  you 
might  talk  him  over ;  so  you  have  been  quite  lucky  in  meeting 
with  me.  Now  just  look  at  the  question  of  expense,"  and  then 
he  proceeded  in  his  strong  Doric  to  explain  his  views  in  detail, 
until  Lord  Howick  could  stand  it  no  longer,  and  he  rose  and 
walked  toward  the  door.  George  followed  him  down  stairs  to 
finish  his  demolition  of  the  atmospheric  system,  and  his  parting 
words  were, "  You  may  take  my  word  for  it,  my  lord,  it  will  nev- 
er answer."  George  afterward  told  his  son  with  glee  of  "the 
settler"  he  had  given  Lord  Howick. 

So  closely  were  the  Stephensons  identified  with  this  measure, 
and  so  great  was  the  personal  interest  which  they  were  both 
known  to  take  in  its  success,  that,  on  the  news  of  the  passing  of 
the  bill  reaching  Newcastle,  a  sort  of  general  holiday  took  place, 
and  the  workmen  belonging  to  the  Stephenson  Locomotive  Fac- 
tory, upward  of  eight  hundred  in  number,  walked  in  procession 
through  the  principal  streets  of  the  town,  accompanied  by  music 
and  banners. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  any  description  of  the  works  of 
the  Newcastle  and  Berwick  Railway.  There  are  no  fewer  than 
a  hundred  and  ten  bridges  of  all  sorts  on  the  line — some  under 
and  some  over  it — the  viaducts  over  the  Ouseburn,  the  Wansbeck, 
and  the  Coquet  being  of  considerable  importance.  But  by  far 
the  most  formidable  piece  of  masonry  work  on  this  railway  is 
at  its  northern  extremity,  where  it  passes  across  the  Tweed  into 
Scotland,  immediately  opposite  the  formerly  redoubtable  castle 
of  Berwick.  Not  many  centuries  had  passed  since  the  district 
amid  which  this  bridge  stands  was  the  scene  of  almost  constant 
warfare.  Berwick  was  regarded  as  the  key  of  Scotland,  and  was 
fiercely  fought  for,  being  sometimes  held  by  a  Scotch  and  some- 
times by  an  English  garrison.  Though  strongly  fortified,  it  was 
repeatedly  taken  by  assault.  On  its  capture  by  Edward  I.,  Boe- 
tius  says,  17,000  persons  were  slain,  so  that  its  streets  "  ran  with 
blood  like  a  river."  Within  sight  of  the  ramparts,  a  little  to  the 
west,  is  Halidon  Hill,  where  a  famous  victory  was  gained  by  Ed- 
ward III.  over  the  Scottish  army  under  Douglas ;  and  there  is 


430 


ROYAL  BORDER  BRIDGE. 


[PART  II. 


BOYAL  BOEDER  BRIDGE,  BERWICK.    [By  E.  P.  Leitch,  after  his  original  Drawing.] 

scarcely  a  foot  of  ground  in  the  neighborhood  but  has  been  the 
scene  of  contention  in  days  long  past.  In  the  reigns  of  James  I. 
and  Charles  I.,  a  bridge  of  fifteen  arches  was  built  across  the 
Tweed  at  Berwick ;  and  now  a  railway  bridge  of  twenty-eight 
arches  was  built  a  little  above  the  old  one,  but  at  a  much  high- 


CHAP.  XVII.]       NEWCASTLE  HIGH-LEVEL  BRIDGE.  431 

er  level.  The  bridge  built  by  the  kings  out  of  the  national  re- 
sources cost  £15,000,  and  occupied  twenty-four  years  and  four 
months  in  the  building ;  the  bridge  built  by  the  Kailway  Com- 
pany, with  funds  drawn  from  private  resources,  cost  £120,000, 
and  was  finished  in  three  years  and  four  months  from  the  day  of 
laying  the  foundation  stone. 

This  important  viaduct,  built  after  the  designs  of  Robert  Ste- 
phenson,  consists  of  a  series  of  twenty-eight  semicircular  arches, 
each  61  feet  6  inches  in  span,  the  greatest  height  above  the  bed 
of  the  river  being  126  feet  The  whole  is  built  of  ashlar,  with  a 
hearting  of  rubble,  excepting  the  river  parts  of  the  arches,  which 
are  constructed  with  bricks  laid  in  cement.  The  total  length  of 
the  work  is  2160  feet.  The  foundations  of  the  piers  were  got  in 
by  coffer-dams  in  the  ordinary  way,  Nasmyth's  steam-hammer 
being  extensively  used  in  driving  the  piles.  The  bearing  piles, 
from  which  the  foundations  of  the  piers  were  built  up,  were  each 
capable  of  carrying  TO  tons. 

Another  bridge,  of  still  greater  importance,  necessary  to  com- 
plete the  continuity  of  the  East  Coast  route,  was  the  master- work 
erected  by  Robert  Stephenson  between  the  north  and  south  banks 
of  the  Tyne,  at  Newcastle,  commonly  known  as  the  High-Level 
Bridge.  Mr.  R.  W.  Brandling,  George  Stephenson's  early  friend, 
is  entitled  to  the  merit  of  originating  the  idea  of  this  bridge,  as 
it  was  eventually  carried  out,  with  a  central  terminus  for  the 
northern  railways  in  the  Castle  Garth.  The  plan  was  first  pro- 
mulgated by  him  in  1841 ;  and  in  the  following  year  it  was  re- 
solved that  George  Stephenson  should  be  consulted  as  to  the  most 
advisable  site  for  the  proposed  structure.  A  prospectus  of  a  High- 
Level  Bridge  Company  was  issued  in  1843,  the  names  of  George 
Stephenson  and  George  Hudson  appearing  on  the  committee  of 
management,  Robert  Stephenson  being  the  consulting  engineer.* 
The  project  was  eventually  taken  up  by  the  Newcastle  and  Dar- 
lington Railway  Company,  and  an  act  for  the  construction  of  the 
bridge  was  obtained  in  1845. 

The  rapid  extension  of  railways  had  given  an  extraordinary 
stimulus  to  the  art  of  bridge-building ;  the  number  of  such  struct- 
ures erected  in  Great  Britain  alone,  since  1830,  having  been  above 
thirty  thousand,  or  far  more  than  all  that  previously  existed  in  the 
country.  Instead  of  the  erection  of  a  single  large  bridge  consti- 


4:32  PROGRESS  OF  BRIDGE-BUILDING.  [PART  II. 

tuting,  as  formerly,  an  epoch  in  engineering,  hundreds  of  exten- 
sive bridges  of  novel  design  were  simultaneously  constructed. 
The  necessity  which  existed  for  carrying  rigid  roads,  capable  of 
bearing  heavy  railway  trains  at  high  speed,  over  extensive  gaps 
free  of  support,  rendered  it  apparent  that  the  methods  which  had 
up  to  that  time  been  employed  for  bridging  space  were  altogether 
insufficient.  The  railway  engineer  could  not,  like  the  ordinary 
road  engineer,  divert  his  road,  and  make  choice  of  the  best  point 
for  crossing  a  river  or  a  valley.  He  must  take  such  ground  as 
lay  in  the  line  of  his  railway,  be  it  bog,  or  mud,  or  shifting  sand. 
Navigable  rivers  and  crowded  thoroughfares  had  to  be  crossed 
without  interruption  to  the  existing  traffic,  sometimes  by  bridges 
at  right  angles  to  the  river  or  road,  sometimes  by  arches  more  or 
less  oblique.  In  many  cases  great  difficulty  arose  from  the  lim- 
ited nature  of  the  headway ;  but,  as  the  level  of  the  original  road 
must  generally  be  preserved,  and  that  of  the  railway  was  in  a 
measure  fixed  and  determined,  it  was  necessary  to  modify  the 
form  and  structure  of  the  bridge  in  almost  every  case,  in  order  to 
comply  with  the  public  requirements.  Novel  conditions  were  met 
by  fresh  inventions,  and  difficulties  of  an  unusual  character  were 
one  after  another  successfully  surmounted.  In  executing  these 
extraordinary  works,  iron  has  been  throughout  the  sheet-anchor 
of  the  engineer.  In  the  various  forms  of  cast  and  wrought  iron 
it  offered  a  valuable  resource  where  rapidity  of  execution,  great 
strength  and  cheapness  of  construction  in  the  first  instance  were 
elements  of  prime  importance,  and  by  its  skillful  use  the  railway 
architect  was  enabled  to  achieve  results  which  thirty  years  since 
would  scarcely  have  been  thought  possible. 

In  many  of  the  early  cast-iron  bridges  the  old  form  of  the  arch 
was  adopted,  the  stability  of  the  structure  depending  wholly  on 
compression,  the  only  novel  feature  consisting  in  the  use  of  iron 
instead  of  stone.  But  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases,  the  arch, 
with  the  railroad  over  it,  was  found  inapplicable  in  consequence 
of  the  limited  headway-  which  it  provided.  Hence  it  early  oc- 
curred to  George  Stephen  son,  when  constructing  the  Liverpool 
and  Manchester  Railway,  to  adopt  the  simple  cast-iron  beam  for 
the  crossing  of  several  roads  and  canals  along  that  line — this 
beam  resembling  in  some  measure  the  lintel  of  the  early  temples 
— the  pressure  on  the  abutments  being  purely  vertical.  One  of 


CHAP.  XVII.]     THE  TYNE  VALLEY  AT  NEWCASTLE.  433 

the  earliest  instances  of  this  kind  of  bridge  was  that  erected  over 
Water  Street,  Manchester,  in  1829 ;  after  which,  cast-iron  girders, 
with  their  lower  webs  considerably  larger  than  their  upper,  were 
ordinarily  employed  where  the  span  was  moderate,  and  wrought- 
iron  tie-rods  below  were  added  to  give  increased  strength  where 
the  span  was  greater. 

The  next  step  was  the  contrivance  of  arched  beams  or  bow- 
string girders,  firmly  held  together  by  horizontal  ties  to  resist  the 
thrust,  instead  of  abutments.  Numerous  excellent  specimens  of 
this  description  of  bridge  were  erected  by  Kobert  Stephenson  on 
the  original  London  and  Birmingham  Railway ;  but  by  far  the 
grandest  work  of  the  kind — perfect  as  a  specimen  of  modern  con- 
structive skill — was  the  High-Level  Bridge,  which  we  owe  to  the 
genius  of  the  same  engineer. 

The  problem  was  to  throw  a  railway  bridge  across  the  deep 
ravine  which  lies  between  the  towns  of  Newcastle  and  Gateshead, 
at  the  bottom  of  which  flows  the  navigable  river  Tyne.  Along 
and  up  the  sides  of  the  valley — on  the  Newcastle  bank  especially 
— rim  streets  of  old-fashioned  houses,  clustered  together  in  the 
strange  forms  peculiar  to  the  older  cities.  The  ravine  is  of  great 
depth — so  deep  and  gloomy-looking  toward  dusk,  that  local  tradi- 
tion records  that  when  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  arrived  late  in 
the  evening,  at  the  brow  of  the  hill  overlooking  the  Tyne,  on  his 
way  to  Culloden,  he  exclaimed  to  his  attendants,  on  looking  down 
into  the  black  gorge  before  him, "  For  God's  sake,  don't  think  of 
taking  me  down  that  coal-pit  at  this  time  of  night !"  The  road 
down  the  Gateshead  High  Street  is  almost  as  steep  as  the  roof  of 
a  house,  and  up  the  Newcastle  Side,  as  the  street  there  is  called, 
it  is  little  better.  During  many  centuries  the  traffic  north  and 
south  passed  along  this  dangerous  and  difficult  route,  across  the 
old  bridge  which  spans  the  river  in  the  bottom  of  the  valley.  For 
some  thirty  years  the  Newcastle  Corporation  had  discussed  vari- 
ious  methods  of  improving  the  communication  between>the  towns ; 
and  the  discussion  might  have  gone  on  for  thirty  years  more,  but 
for  the  advent  of  railways,  when  the  skill  and  enterprise  to  which 
they  gave  birth  speedily  solved  the  difficulty  and  bridged  the  ra- 
vine. The  local  authorities  adroitly  took  advantage  of  the  op- 
portunity, and  insisted  on  the  provision  of  a  road  for  ordinary 
vehicles  and  foot  passengers  in  addition  to  the  railroad.  In  tliis 


434:  FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  BRIDGE.  [PART II. 

circumstance  originated  one  of  the  most  remarkable  peculiarities 
of  the  High-Level  Bridge,  which  serves  two  purposes,  being  a  rail- 
way above,  with  a  carriage  roadway  underneath. 

The  breadth  of  the  river  at  the  point  of  crossing  is  515  feet, 
but  the  length  of  the  bridge  and  viaduct  between  the  Gateshead 
station  and  the  terminus  on  the  Newcastle  side  is  about  4000  feet. 
It  springs  from  Pipewell  Gate  Bank,  on  the  south,  directly  across 
to  Castle  Garth,  where,  nearly  fronting  the  bridge,  stands  the  fine 
old  Norman  keep  of  the  New  Castle,  now  nearly  eight  hundred 
years  old ;  and  a  little  beyond  it  is  the  spire  of  St.  Nicholas 
Church,  with  its  light  and  graceful  Gothic  crown,  the  whole  form- 
ing a  grand  architectural  group  of  unusual  historic  interest.  The 
bridge  passes  completely  over  the  roofs  of  the  houses  which  fill 
both  sides  of  the  valley,  and  the  extraordinary  height  of  the  up- 
per parapet,  which  is  about  130  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  river, 
offers  a  prospect  to  the  passing  traveler  the  like  of  which  is  per- 
haps nowhere  else  to  be  seen.  Far  below  lie  the  queer  chares 
and  closes,  the  wynds  and  lanes  of  old  Newcastle ;  the  water  is 
crowded  with  pudgy,  black  coal  keels ;  and,  when  there  is  a  lull 
in  the  great  clouds  of  smoke  which  usually  obscure  the  sky,  the 
funnels  of  steamers  and  the  masts  of  the  shipping  may  be  seen 
far  down  the  river.  The  old  bridge  lies  so  far  beneath  that  the 
passengers  crossing  it  seem  like  so  many  bees  passing  to  and  fro. 

The  first  difficulty  encountered  in  building  the  bridge  was  in 
securing  a  solid  foundation  for  the  piers.  The  dimensions  of  the 
piles  to  be  driven  were  so  huge  that  the  engineer  found  it  neces- 
sary to  employ  some  extraordinary  means  for  the  purpose.  He 
called  Nasmyth's  Titanic  steam-hammer  to  his  aid — the  first  oc- 
casion, we  believe,  on  which  this  prodigious  power  was  employed 
in  bridge  pile-driving.  A  temporary  staging  was  erected  for  the 
steam-engine  and  hammer  apparatus,  which  rested  on  two  keels, 
and,  notwithstanding  the  newness  and  stiffness  of  the  machinery, 
the  first  pile  was  driven  on  the  6th  of  October,  1846,  to  a  depth 
of  32  feet  in  four  minutes.  Two  hammers  of  30  cwt.  each  were 
kept  in  regular  use,  making  from  60  to  70  strokes  per  minute, 
and  the  results  were  astounding  to  those  who  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  the  old  style  of  pile-driving  by  means  of  the  ordinary 
pile-frame,  consisting  of  slide,  ram,  and  monkey.  By  the  old  sys- 
tem the  pile  was  driven  by  a  comparatively  small  mass  of  iron 
descending  with  great  velocity  from  a  considerable  height — the 


CHAP.  XVII.]  PILE-DRIVING  BY  STEAM.  435 

velocity  being  in  excess  and  the  mass  deficient,  and  calculated, 
like  the  momentum  of  a  cannon-ball,  rather  for  destructive  than 
impulsive  action.  In  the  case  of  the  steam  pile-driver,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  whole  weight  of  a  heavy  mass  is  deli vered  rapidly  upon 
a  driving-block  of  several  tons  weight  placed  directly  over  the 
head  of  the.  pile,  the  weight  never  ceasing,  and  the  blows  being 
repeated  at  the  rate  of  a  blow  a  second,  until  the  pile  is  driven 
home.  It  is  a  curious  fact,  that  the  rapid  strokes  of  the  steam- 
hammer  evolved  so  much  heat,  that  on  many  occasions  the  pile- 
head  burst  into  flame  during  the  process  of  driving.  The  elastic 
force  of  steam  is  the  power  that  lifts  the  ram,  the  escape  permit- 
ting its  entire  force  to  fall  upon  the  head  of  the  driving-block; 
while  the  steam  above  the  piston  on  the  upper  part  of  the  cylin- 
der, acting  as  a  buffer  or  recoil-spring,  materially  enhances  the 
effect  of  the  downward  blow.  As  soon  as  one  pile  was  driven, 
the  traveler,  hovering  overhead,  presented  another,  and  down  it 
went  into  the  solid  bed  of  the  river  with  almost  as  much  ease  as 
a  lady  sticks  pins  into  a  cushion.  By  the  aid  of  this  formidable 
machine,  what  before  was  among  the  most  costly  and  tedious  of  en- 
gineering operations  was  rendered  simple,  easy,  and  economical. 

When  the  piles  had  been  driven  and  the  coffer-dams  formed 
and  puddled,  the  water  within  the  inclosed  spaces  was  pumped 
out  by  the  aid  of  powerful  engines,  so  as  to  lay  bare  the  bed  of 
the  river.  Considerable  difficulty  was  experienced  in  getting  in 
the  foundations  of  the  middle  pier,  in  consequence  of  the  water 
forcing  itself  through  the  quicksand  beneath  as  fast  as  it  was  re- 
moved. This  fruitless  labor  went  on  for  months,  and  many  ex- 
pedients were  tried.  Chalk  was  thrown  in  in  large  quantities 
outside  the  piling,  but  without  effect.  Cement  concrete  was  at 
last  put  within  the  coffer-dam  until  it  set,  and  the  bottom  was 
then  found  to  be  secure.  A  bed  of  concrete  was  laid  up  to  the 
level  of  the  heads  of  the  piles,  the  foundation  course  of  stone 
blocks  being  commenced  about  two  feet  below  low  water,  and  the 
building  proceeded  without  farther  difficulty.  It  may  serve  to 
give  an  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  work  when  we  state  that 
400,000  cubic  feet  of  ashlar,  rubble,  and  concrete  were  worked 
up  in  the  piers,  and  450,000  cubic  feet  in  the  land-arches  and  ap- 
proaches. 

The  most  novel  feature  of  the  structure  is  the  use  of  cast  and 
wrought  iron  in  forming  the  double  bridge,  which  admirably  corn- 
E  E 


436 


PLAN  OF  THE  BRIDGE. 


[PART  II. 


bines  the  two  principles  of  the  arch  and  suspension,  the  railway 
being  carried  over  the  back  of  the  ribbed  arches  in  the  usual 
manner,  while  the  carriage-road  and  footpaths,  forming  a  long 
gallery  or  aisle,  are  suspended  from  these  arches  by  wrought-iron 
vertical  rods,  with  horizontal  tie-bars  to  resist  the  thrust.  The 
suspension-bolts  are  inclosed  within  spandril  pillars  of  cast  iron, 
which  give  great  stiffness  to  the  superstructure.  This  system  of 
longitudinal  and  vertical  bracing  has  been  much  admired,  for  it 
not  only  accomplishes  the  primary  object  of  securing  rigidity  in 
the  roadway,  but  at  the  same  time,  by  its  graceful  arrangement, 
heightens  the  beauty  of  the  structure.  The  arches  consist  of  four 
main  ribs,  disposed  in  pairs,  with  a  clear  distance  between  the  two 
inner  arches  of  20  feet  4=  inches,  forming  the  carriage-road,  while 
between  each  of  the  inner  and  outer  ribs  there  is  a  space  of  6  feet 
2  inches,  constituting  the  footpaths.  Each  arch  is  cast  in  five 
separate  lengths  or  segments,  strongly  bolted  together.  The  ribs 
spring  from  horizontal  plates  of  cast  iron,  bedded  and  secured  on 
the  stone  piers.  All  the  abutting  joints  were  carefully  executed 
by  machinery,  the  fitting  being  of  the  most  perfect  kind.  In  or- 
der to  provide  for  the  expansion  and  contraction  of  the  iron  arch- 
ing, and  to  preserve  the  equilibrium  of  the  piers  without  disturb- 
ance or  racking  of  the  other  parts  of  the  bridge,  it  was  arranged 
that  the  ribs  of  every  two  adjoining  arches  resting  on  the  same 
pier  should  be  secured  to  the  springing-plates  by  keys  and  jog- 
gles ;  while  on  the  next  piers,  on  either  side,  the  ribs  remained 
free,  and  were  at  liberty  to  expand  or  contract  according  to  tern- 


CHAP.  XVII.]         THE  "LAST  ACT  OF  THE  UNION."  437 

perature — a  space  being  left  for  the  purpose.  Hence  each  arch 
is  complete  and  independent  in  itself,  the  piers  having  simply  to 
sustain  their  vertical  pressure.  The  arches  are  six  in  number,  of 
125  feet  span  each,  the  two  approaches  to  the  bridge  being  form- 
ed of  cast-iron  pillars  and  bearers  in  keeping  with  the  arches. 

The  result  is  a  bridge  that  for  massive  solidity  may  be  pro- 
nounced unrivaled.  It  is  one  of  the  most  magnificent  and  strik- 
ing of  the  bridges  to  which  railways  have  given  birth,  and  has 
been  worthily  styled  "  the  King  of  railway  structures."  It  is  a 
monument  of  the  highest  engineering  skill  of  our  time,  with  the 
impress  of  power  grandly  stamped  upon  it.  It  will  also  be  ob- 
served from  the  drawing  placed  as  the  frontispiece  to  this  Life, 
that  the  High-Level  Bridge  forms  a  very  fine  object  in  a  picture 
of  great  interest,  full  of  striking  architectural  variety  and  beauty. 
The  bridge  was  opened  on  the  15th  of  August,  1849.  A  few 
days  after,  the  royal  train  passed  over  it,  halting  for  a  few  min- 
utes to  enable  her  majesty  to  survey  the  wonderful  scene  below. 
In  the  course  of  the  following  year  the  queen  opened  the  exten- 
sive stone  viaduct  across  the  Tweed  above  described,  by  which 
the  last  link  was  completed  of  the  continuous  line  of  railway  be- 
tween London  and  Edinburg.  Over  the  entrance  to  the  Berwick 
station,  occupying  the  site  of  the  once  redoubtable  Border'for- 
tress,  so  often  the  deadly  battle-ground  of  the  ancient  Scots  and 
English,  was  erected  an  arch  under  which  the  royal  train  passed, 
bearing  in  large  letters  of  gold  the  appropriate  words,  "The  last 
act  of  the  Union." 

The  warders  at  Berwick  no  longer  look  out  from  the  castle 
walls  to  descry  the  glitter  of  Southron  spears.  The  bell-tower, 
from  which  the  alarm  was  sounded  of  old,  though  still  standing, 
is  deserted ;  the  only  bell  heard  within  the  precincts  of  the  old 
castle  being  the  railway  porter's  bell  announcing  the  arrival  and 
departure  of  trains.  You  see  the  Scotch  Express  pass  along  the 
bridge  and  speed  southward  on  the  wings  of  steam.  But  no 
alarm  spreads  along  the  Border  now.  Northumbrian  beeves  are 
safe.  Chevy  Chase  and  Otterburn  are  quiet  sheep-pastures.  The 
only  men-at-arms  on  the  battlements  of  Alnwick  Castle  are  of 
stone.  Bamborough  Castle  has  become  an  asylum  for  shipwreck- 
ed mariners,  and  the  Gorman  Keep  at  Newcastle  has  been  con- 
verted into  a  Museum  of  Antiquities.  The  railway  has  indeed 
consummated  the  LTnion. 


438  RAILWAY  FROM  CHESTER  TO  HOLYHEAD.       [PART  II. 


CHAPTEE 

CHESTEB   AND   HOLYHEAD   EAILWAY — MENAI  AND  CONWAY  BRIDGES. 

WE  have  now  to  describe  briefly  another  great  undertaking, 
begun  by  George  Stephenson,  and  taken  up  and  completed  by 
his  son,  in  the  course  of  which  the  latter  carried  out  some  of  his 
greatest  works — we  mean  the  Chester  and  Holyhead  Kailway, 
completing  the  railway  connection  with  Dublin,  as  the  Newcastle 
and  Berwick  line'  completed  the  connection  with  Edinburg.  It 
will  thus  be  seen  how  closely  Telf ord  was  followed  by  the  Ste- 
phensons  in  perfecting  the  highways  of  their  respective  epochs ; 
the  former  by  means  of  turnpike  roads,  and  the  latter  by  means 
of  railways. 

George  Stephenson  surveyed  a  line  from  Chester  to  Holyhead 
in  1838,  and  at  the  same  time  reported  on  the  line  through  North 
Wales  to  Port  Dynallen,  as  proposed  by  the  Irish  Kailway  Com- 
missioners. His  advice  was  strongly  in  favor  of  adopting  the 
line  to  Holyhead,  as  less  costly  and  presenting  better  gradients. 
A  public  meeting  was  held  at  Chester  in  January,  1839,  in  sup- 
port of  the  latter  measure,  at  which  he  was  present  to  give  expla- 
nations. Mr.  Uniacke,  the  mayor,  in  opening  the  proceedings,  ob- 
served that  it  clearly  appeared  that  the  rival  line  through  Shrews- 
bury was  quite  impracticable.  Mr.  Stephenson,  he  added,  was 
present  in  the  room,  ready  to  answer  any  questions  which  might 
be  put  to  him  on  the  subject ;  and  "  it  would  be  better  that  he 
should  be  asked  questions  than  required  to  make  a  speech ;  for, 
though  a  very  good  engineer,  he  was  a  bad  speaker." 

One  of  the  questions  then  put  to  Mr.  Stephenson  related  to  the 
mode  by  which  he  proposed  to  haul  the  passenger-carriages  over 
the  Menai  Suspension  Bridge  by  horse-power ;  and  he  was  asked 
whether  he  knew  the  pressure  the  bridge  was  capable  of  sustain- 
ing. His  answer  was  that  "he  had  not  yet  made  any  calcula- 
tions, but  he  proposed  getting  data  which  would  enable  him  to 
arrive  at  an  accurate  calculation  of  the  actual  strain  upon  the 
bridge  during  the  late  gale.  He  had,  however,  no  hesitation  in 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  MENAI  SUSPENSION  BRIDGE.  439 

saying  that  it  was  more  than  twenty  times  as  much  as  the  strain 
of  a  train  of  carriages  and  a  locomotive  engine.  The  only  reason 
why  he  proposed  to  convey  the  carriages  over  by  horses  was  in 
order  that  he  might,  by  distributing  the  weight,  not  increase  the 
wavy  motion.  All  the  train  would  be  on  at  once,  but  distributed. 
This  he  thought  better  than  passing  them  linked  together,  by  a 
locomotive  engine."  It  will  thus  be  observed  that  the  practica- 
bility of  throwing  a  rigid  railroad  bridge  across  the  Straits  had 
not  yet  been  completed. 

The  Dublin  Chamber  of  Commerce  passed  resolutions  in  favor 
of  Stephenson's  line  after  hearing  his  explanations  of  its  essential 
features.  The  project,  after  undergoing  much  discussion,  was  at 
length  embodied  in  an  act  passed  in  1844,  and  the  work  was 
brought  to  a  successful  completion  by  his  son,  with  several  im- 
portant modifications,  including  the  grand  original  feature  of  the 
tubular  bridges  across  the  Menai  Straits  and  the  estuary  of  the 
Conway.  Excepting  these  great  works,  the  construction  of  this 
line  presented  no  unusual  features,  though  the  remarkable  terrace 
cut  for  the  accommodation  of  the  railway  under  the  steep  slope 
of  Penmaen  Mawr  is  worthy  of  a  passing  notice. 

About  midway  between  Conway  and  Bangor,  Penmaen  Mawr 
forms  a  bold  and  almost  precipitous  headland,  at  the  base  of 
which,  in  rough  weather,  the  ocean  dashes  with  great  fury.  There 
was  not  space  enough  between  the  mountain  and  the  strand  for 
the  passage  of  the  railway ;  hence  in  some  places  the  rock  had  to 
be  blasted  to  form  a  terrace,  and  in  others  sea  walls  had  to  be 
built  up  to  the  proper  level,  on  which  to  form  an  embankment  of 
sufficient  width  to  enable  the  road  to  be  laid.  A  tunnel  of  10£ 
chains  in  length  was  cut  through  the  headland  itself ;  and  on  its 
east  and  west  sides  the  line  was  formed  by  a  terrace  cut  out  of 
the  cliff,  and  by  embankments  protected  by  sea  walls,  the  terrace 
being  three  times  interrupted  by  embankments  in  its  course  of 
about  a  mile  and  a  quarter.  The  road  lies  so  close  under  the 
steep  mountain  face  that  it  was  even  found  necessary  at  certain 
places  to  protect  it  against  possible  accidents  from  falling  stones, 
by  means  of  a  covered  way.  The  terrace  on  the  east  side  of  the 
headland  was,  however,  in  some  measure,  protected  against  the 
roll  of  the  sea  by  the  mass  of  stone  run  out  from  the  tunnel, 
which  formed  a  deep  shingle-bank  in  front  of  the  wall. 


440 


WORKS  AT  PENMAEN  MA  WR, 


[PART  II. 


PESMAEN  MAWB.    [By  Percival  Skelton,  after  his  original  Drawing.] 

The  part  of  the  work  which  lies  to  the  westward  of  the  head- 
land penetrated  by  the  tunnel  was  exposed  to  the  full  force  of 
the  sea,  and  the  formation  of  the  road  at  that  point  was  attended 
with  great  difficulty.  While  the  sea  wall  was  still  in  progress, 
its  strength  was  severely  tried  by  a  strong  northwesterly  gale 
which  blew  in  October,  1846,  accompanied  with  a  spring  tide  of 
17  feet.  On  the  following  morning  it  was  found  that  a  large 
portion  of  the  rubble  was  irreparably  injured,  and  200  yards  of 
the  wall  were  then  replaced  by  an  open  viaduct,  with  the  piers 
placed  edgeways  to  the  sea,  the  openings  between  them  being 
spanned  by  ten  cast-iron  girders  42  feet  long.  This  accident  far- 
ther induced  the  engineer  to  alter  the  contour  of  the  sea  wall,  so 


CHAP.  XVIII.]     CROSSING  OF  THE  MENAI  STRAIT.  441 

that  it  should  present  a  diminished  resistance  to  the  force  of  the 
waves. 

But  the  sea  repeated  its  assaults,  and  made  farther  havoc  with 
the  work,  entailing  heavy  expenses  and  a  complete  reorganization 
of  the  contract.  Increased  solidity  was  then  given  to  the  mason- 
ry, and  the  face  of  the  wall  underwent  farther  change.  At  some 
points  outworks  were  constructed,  and  piles  were  driven  into  the 
beach  about  15  feet  from  the  base  of  the  wall  for  the  purpose  of 
protecting  its  foundations  and  breaking  the  force  of  the  waves. 
The  work  was  at  length  finished  after  about  three  years'  anxious 
labor;  but  Mr.  Stephenson  confessed  that  if  a  long  tunnel  had 
been  made  in  the  first  instance  through  the  solid  rock  of  Pen- 
maen  Mawr,  a  saving  of  from  £25,000  to  £30,000  would  have 
been  effected.  He  also  said  he  had  arrived  at  the  conclusion 
that  in  railway  works  engineers  should  endeavor  as  far  as  possi- 
ble to  avoid  the  necessity  of  contending  with  the  sea  ;*  but  if  he 
were  ever  again  compelled  to  go  within  its  reach,  he  would 
adopt,  instead  of  retaining  walls,  an  open  viaduct,  placing  all  the 
piers  edgeways  to  the  force  of  the  sea,  and  allowing  the  waves  to 
break  upon  a  natural  slope  of  beach.  He  was  ready  enough  to 
admit  the  errors  he  had  committed  in  the  original  design  of  this 
work ;  but  he  said  he  had  always  gained  more  information  from 
studying  the  causes  of  failures  and  endeavoring  to  surmount 
them,  than  he  had  done  from  easily-won  successes.  While  many 
of  the  latter  had  been  forgotten,  the  former  were  indelibly  fixed 
in  his  memory. 

But  by  far  the  greatest  difficulty  which  Robert  Stephenson  had 
to  encounter  in  executing  this  railway  was  in  carrying  it  across 
the  Straits  of  Menai  and  the  estuary  of  the  Conway,  where,  like 
his  predecessor  Telford,  when  forming  his  high  road  through 
North  Wales,  he  was  under  the  necessity  of  resorting  to  new  and 
altogether  untried  methods  of  bridge  construction.  At  Menai, 
the  waters  of  the  Irish  Sea  are  perpetually  vibrating  along  the 
precipitous  shores  of  the  Strait,  rising  and  falling  from  20  to  25 

*  The  simple  fact  that  in  a  heavy  storm  the  force  of  impact  of  the  waves  is  from 
one  and  a  half  to  two  tons  per  square  foot,  must  necessarily  dictate  the  greatest  pos- 
sible caution  in  approaching  so  formidable  an  element.  Mr.  R.  Stevenson  (Edin- 
burg)  registered  a  force  of  three  tons  per  square  foot  at  Skerryvore  during  a  gale  in 
the  Atlantic,  when  the  waves  were  supposed  to  run  twenty  feet  high. 


442 


THE  FIRST  PROPOSED  BRIDGE. 


[PART  II. 


feet  at  eacli  successive  tide,  the  width  and  depth  of  the  channel 
being  such  as  to  render  it  available  for  navigation  by  the  largest 
ships.  The  problem  was  to  throw  a  bridge  across  this  wide  chasm 
— a  bridge  of  unusual  span  and  dimensions — of  such  strength  as 
to  be  capable  of  bearing  the  heaviest  loads  at  high  speeds,  and  of 
such  a  uniform  height  throughout  as  not  in  any  way  to  interfere 
with  the  navigation  of  the  Strait.  From  an  early  period  Mr.  Ste- 
phenson  had  fixed  upon  the  spot  where  the  Britannia  Rock  oc- 
curs, nearly  in  the  middle  of  the  channel,  as  the  most  eligible 
point  for  crossing,  the  water  width  from  shore  to  shore  at  high 
water  being  there  about  1100  feet. 

The  engineer's  first  idea  was  to  construct  the  bridge  of  two 

cast-iron  arches  of  350  feet 
span  each.  There  was  no 
novelty  in  this  idea;  for,  as 
early  as  the  year  1801,  Mr. 
Rennie  prepared  a  design  of 
a  cast-iron  bridge  across  the 
Strait  at  the  Swilly  Rocks, 
the  great  centre  arch  of  which 
was  to  be  450  feet  span ;  and 
at  a  later  period,  in  1810,  Tel- 
ford  submitted  a  design  of  a 
similar  bridge  at  Inys-y-Moch, 
with  a  single  cast-iron  arch  of 
500  feet.  But  the  same  ob- 
jections which  led  to  the  re- 
jection of  Rennie's  and  Tel- 
ford's  designs  proved  fatal  to 
Robert  Stephenson's,  and  his 
iron -arched  railway  bridge 
was  rejected  by  the  Admiral- 
ty. The  navigation  of  the 
Strait  was  under  no  circum- 
stances to  be  interfered  with ; 
and  even  the  erection  of  scaffolding  from  below,  to  support  the 
bridge  during  construction,  was  not  to  be  permitted.  The  idea 
of  a  suspension  bridge  was  dismissed  as  inapplicable,  a  degree 
of  rigidity  and  strength  greater  than  could  be  secured  by  any 


CHAP.  XVIII.]     PLAN  OF  SUSPENDED  CENTERING.  443 

bridge  erected  on  the  principle  of  suspension  being  considered  an 
indispensable  condition  of  the  proposed  structure. 

Mr.  Stephenson  next  considered  the  expediency  of  erecting  a 
bridge  by  means  of  suspended  centering,  after  the  ingenious  meth- 
od proposed  by  Telford  in  1810,*  by  which  the  arching  was  to  be 
carried  out  by  placing  equal  and  corresponding  voussoirs  on  op- 
posite sides  of  the  pier  at  the  same  time,  tying  them  together  by 
horizontal  tie-bolts.  The  arching,  thus  extended  outward  from 
each  pier  and  held  in  equilibrium,  would  have  been  connected  at 
the  crown  with  the  extremity  of  the  arch  advanced  in  like  man- 
ner from  the  adjoining  pier.  It  was,  however,  found  that  this 
method  of  construction  was  not  applicable  at  the  crossing  of  the 
Conway,  and  it  was  eventually  abandoned.  Various  other  plans 
were  suggested ;  but  the  whole  question  remained  unsettled  even 
down  to  the  time  when  the  company  went  before  Parliament  in 
1844  for  power  to  construct  the  proposed  bridges.  No  existing 
kind  of  structure  seemed  to  be  capable  of  bearing  the  severe  ex- 
tension to  which  rigid  bridges  of  the  necessaiy  spans  would  be 
subjected,  and  some  new  expedient  of  engineering  therefore  be- 
came necessary. 

Mr.  Stephenson  was  then  led  to  reconsider  a  design  which  he 
had  made  in  1841  for  a  road  bridge  over  the  Eiver  Lea  at  Ware, 
with  a  span  of  50  feet,  the  conditions  only  admitting  of  a  plat- 
form 18  or  20  inches  thick.  For  this  purpose  a  wrought-iron 
platform  was  devised,  consisting  of  a  series  of  simple  cells,  form- 
ed of  boiler-plates  riveted  together  with  angle-iron.  The  bridge 
was  not,  however,  carried  out  after  this  design,  but  was  made  of 
separate  wrought-iron  girders  composed  of  riveted  plates.f  Re- 
curring to  his  first  idea  of  this  bridge,  the  engineer  thought  that  a 
stiff  platform  might  be  constructed,  with  sides  of  strongly-trussed 
frame-work  of  wrought  iron,  braced  together  at  top  and  bottom 
with  plates  of  like  material  riveted  together  with  angle-iron,  after 
a  method  adopted  by  Mr.  Eendel  in  stiffening  the  suspension 

*  See  "  Lives  of  the  Engineers,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  445.  It  appears  that  Mr.  Fairbairn 
suggested  this  idea  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Stephenson,  dated  the  3d  of  June,  1845,  accom- 
panied by  a  drawing.  See  his  "Account  of  the  Construction  of  the  Britannia  and 
Conway  Tubular  Bridges,"  etc.  London,  1849. 

t  Robert  Stephenson's  narrative  of  the  early  history  of  the  design,  in  Edwin  Clark's 
"  Britannia  and  Conway  Tubular  Bridges,"  vol.  i.,  p.  25,  London,  1850. 


444  ^  TUBULAR  BEAM  PROPOSED.  [PART  II. 

bridge  at  Montrose  with  wooden  trellis-work  a  few  years  before ; 
and  that  such  platform  might  be  suspended  by  strong  chains  on 
either  side  to  give  it  increased  security.  "  It  was  now,"  says  Mr. 
Stephenson,  "  that  I  came  to  regard  the  tubular  platform  as  a 
beam,  and  that  the  chains  should  be  looked  upon  as  auxiliaries." 
It  appeared  to  him,  nevertheless,  that  without  a  system  of  diag- 
onal struts  inside,  which  of  course  would  have  prevented  the  pas- 
sage of  trains  through  it,  this  kind  of  structure  was  ill  suited  for 
maintaining  its  form,  and  would  be  very  liable  to  become  lozenge- 
shaped.  Besides,  the  rectangular  figure  was  deemed  objection- 
able, from  the  large  surface  which  it  presented  to  the  wind. 

It  then  occurred  to  him  that  circular  or  elliptical  tubes  might 
better  answer  the  intended  purpose ;  and  in  March,  1845,  he  gave 
instructions  to  two  of  his  assistants  to  prepare  drawings  of  such 
a  structure,  the  tubes  being  made  with  a  double  thickness  of  plate 
at  top  and  bottom.  The  results  of  the  calculations  made  as  to 
the  strength  of  such  a  tube  were  considered  so  satisfactory,  that 
Mr.  Stephenson  says  he  determined  to  fall  back  upon  a  bridge  of 
this  description  on  the  rejection  of  his  design  of  the  two  cast-iron 
arches  by  the  Parliamentary  Committee.  Indeed,  it  became  evi- 
dent that  a  tubular  wrought-iron  beam  was  the  only  structure 
which  combined  the  necessary  strength  and  stability  for  a  rail- 
way, with  the  conditions  deemed  essential  for  the  protection  of 
the  navigation : 

"  I  stood,"  says  Mr.  Stephenson, "  on  the  verge  of  a  responsibility 
from  which,  I  confess,  I  had  nearly  shrunk.  The  construction  of  a 
tubular  beam  of  such  gigantic  dimensions,  on  a  platform  elevated 
and  supported  by  chains  at  such  a  height,  did  at  first  present  itself 
as  a  difficulty  of  a  very  formidable  nature.  Reflection,  however, 
satisfied  me  that  the  principles  upon  which  the  idea  was  founded 
were  nothing  more  than  an  extension  of  those  daily  in  use  in  the 
profession  of  the  engineer.  The  method,  moreover,  of  calculating 
the  strength  of  the  structure  which  I  had  adopted  was  of  the  sim- 
plest and  most  elementary  character ;  and  whatever  might  be  the 
form  of  the  tube,  the  principle  on  which  the  calculations  were 
founded  was  equally  applicable,  and  could  not  fail  to  lead  to  equal- 
ly accurate  results."* 

*  Robert  Stephenson's  narrative  in  Clark's  "Britannia  and  Conway  Tubular 
Bridges,"  vol.  i.,  p.  27. 


CHAP.  XVin.]     STRENGTH  OF  THE  WROUGHT-IRON  BEAM.      445 

Mr.  Stephenson  accordingly  announced  to  the  directors  of  the 
railway  that  he  was  prepared  to  carry  out  a  bridge  of  this  general 
description,  and  they  adopted  his  views,  though  not  without  con- 
siderable misgivings. 

While  the  engineer's  mind  was  still  occupied  with  the  subject, 
an  accident  occurred  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  iron  steam-ship,  at 
Blackwall,  which  singularly  corroborated  his  views  as  to  the 
strength  of  wrought-iron  beams  of  large  dimensions.  When  this 
vessel  was  being  launched,  the  cleet  on  the  bow  gave  way  in  con- 
sequence of  the  bolts  breaking,  and  let  the  vessel  down  so  that 
the  bilge  came  in  contact  with  the  wharf,  and  she  remained  sus- 
pended between  the  water  and  the  wharf  for  a  length  of  about 
110  feet,  but  without  any  injury  to  the  plates  of  the  ship,  satisfac- 
torily proving  the  great  strength  of  this  form  of  construction. 
Thus  Mr.  Stephenson  became  gradually  confirmed  in  his  opinion 
that  the  most  feasible  method  of  bridging  the  strait  at  Menai  and 
the  river  at  Conway  was  by  means  of  a  hollow  tube  of  wrought 
iron.  As  the  time  was  approaching  for  giving  evidence  before 
Parliament  on  the  subject,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  settle  some 
definite  plan  for  submission  to  the  committee. 

"  My  late  revered  father,"  says  he,  "  having  always  taken  a  deep 
interest  in  the  various  proposals  which  had  been  considered  for  car- 
rying a  railway  across  the  Menai  Straits,  requested  me  to  explain 
fully  to  him  the  views  which  led  me  to  suggest  the  use  of  a  tube, 
and  also  the  nature  of  the  calculations  I  had  made  in  reference  to  it. 
It  was  during  this  personal  conference  that  Mr.  William  Fairbairn 
accidentally  called  upon  me,  to  whom  I  also  explained  the  princi- 
ples of  the  structure  I  had  proposed.  He  at  once  acquiesced  in 
their  truth,  and  expressed  confidence  in  the  feasibility  of  my  project, 
giving  me  at  the  same  time  some  facts  relative  to  the  remarkable 
strength  of  iron  steam-ships,  and  invited  me  to  his  works  at  Mill- 
wall  to  examine  the  construction  of  an  iron  steam-ship  which  was 
then  in  progress."* 

The  date  of  this  consultation  was  early  in  April,  1845,  and  Mr. 
Fairbairn  states  that,  on  that  occasion, 

"  Mr.  Stephenson  asked  whether  such  a  design  was  practicable, 
and  whether  I  could  accomplish  it ;  and  it  was  ultimately  arranged 

*  "Robert  Stephenson's  narrative  in  Clark's  "Britannia  and  Conway  Tubular 
Bridges,"  vol.  L,  p.  27. 


446  EXPERIMENTS  ON  TUBES.  [PAKT  II. 

that  the  subject  should  be  investigated  experimentally,  to  deter- 
mine not  only  the  value  of  Mr.  Stephenson's  original  conception  (of 
a  circular  or  egg-shaped  wrought-iron  tube,  supported  by  chains), 
but  that  of  any  other  tubular  form  of  bridge  which  might  present 
itself  in  the  prosecution  of  my  researches.  The  matter  was  placed 
unreservedly  in  my  hands ;  the  entire  conduct  of  the  investigation 
was  intrusted  to  me ;  and,  as  an  experimenter,  I  was  to  be  left  free 
to  exercise  my  own  discretion  in  the  investigation  of  whatever  forms 
or  conditions  of  the  structure  might  appear  to  me  best  calculated 
to  secure  a  safe  passage  across  the  Straits."* 

Mr.  Fairbairn  then  proceeded  to  construct  a  number  of  experi- 
mental models,  for  the  purpose  of  testing  the  strength  of  tubes  of 
different  forms.  The  short  period  which  elapsed,  however,  be- 
fore the  bill  was  in  committee,  did  not  admit  of  much  progress 
being  made  with  those  experiments;  but  from  the  evidence  in 
chief  given  by  Mr.  Stephenson  on  the  subject  on  the "5th  of  May 
following,  it  appears  that  the  idea  which  prevailed  in  his  mind 
was  that  of  a  bridge  with  openings  of  450  feet  (afterward  in- 
creased to  460  feet),  with  a  roadway  formed  of  a  hollow  wrought- 
iron  beam  about  25  feet  in  diameter,  presenting  a  rigid  platform 
suspended  by  chains.  At  the  same  time,  he  expressed  the  confi- 
dent opinion  that  a  tube  of  wrought  iron  would  possess  sufficient 
strength  and  rigidity  to  support  a  railway  train  running  inside 
of  it  without  the  help  of  the  chains. 

While  the  bill  was  still  in  progress,  Mr.  Fairbairn  proceeded 
with  his  experiments.  He  first  tested  tubes  of  a  cylindrical  form, 
in  consequence  of  the  favorable  opinion  entertained  by  Mr.  Ste- 
phenson of  tubes  in  that  shape,  extending  them  subsequently  to 
those  of  an  elliptical  form.f  He  found  tubes  thus  shaped  more 
or  less  defective,  and  proceeded  to  test  those  of  a  rectangular 
kind.  After  the  bill  had  received  the  royal  assent,  on  the  30th 
of  June,  1845,  the  directors  of  the  company,  with  great  liberality, 
voted  a  sum  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  experiments  to  be 

*  "Account  of  the  Construction  of  the  Britannia  and  Conway  Tubular  Bridges." 
By  W.  Fairbairn,  C.E.,  London,  1849. 

t  Mr.  Stephenson  continued  to  hold  that  the  elliptical  tube  was  the  right  idea,  and 
that  sufficient  justice  had  not  been  done  to  it.  A  year  or  two  before  his  death,  Mr. 
Stephenson  remarked  to  the  author  that,  had  the  same  arrangement  for  stiffening 
been  adopted  to  which  the  oblong  rectangular  tubes  owe  a  great  part  of  their  strength, 
a  very  different  result  would  have  been  obtained. 


CHAP.  XVIII.]    MR.  FAIRBAIRN.— MR.  HODGKINSON.  M7 

prosecuted,  and  upward  of  £6000  were  thus  expended  to  make 
the  assurance  of  their  engineer  doubly  sure. 

Mr.  Fairbairn's  tests  were  of  the  most  elaborate  and  eventually 
conclusive  character,  bringing  to  light  many  new  and  important 
facts  of  great  practical  value.  The  due  proportions  and  thick- 
nesses of  the  top,  bottom,  and  sides  of  the  tubes  were  arrived  at 
after  a  vast  number  of  separate  trials,  one  of  the  results  of  the 
experiments  being  the  adoption  of  Mr.  Fairbairn's  invention  of 
rectangular  hollow  cells  in  the  top  of  the  beam  for  the  purpose 
of  giving  it  the  requisite  degree  of  strength.  About  the  end  of 
August  it  was  thought  desirable  to  obtain  the  assistance  of  a 
mathematician,  who  should  prepare  a  formula  by  wliich  the 
strength  of  a  full-sized  tube  might  be  calculated  from  the  re- 
sults of  the  experiments  made  with  tubes  of  smaller  dimensions. 
Professor  Ilodgkinson  was  accordingly  called  in,  and  he  pro- 
ceeded to  verify  and  confirm  the  experiments  which  Mr.  Fair- 
bairn  had  made,  and  afterward  reduced  them  to  the  required 
formulae,  though  Mr.  Fairbairn  states  that  they  did  not  appear 
in  time  to  be  of  any  practical  service  in  proportioning  the  parts 
of  the  largest  tubes.* 

Mr.  Stephenson's  time  was  so  much  engrossed  with  his  exten- 
sive engineering  business  that  he  was  in  a  great  measure  pre- 
cluded from  devoting  himself  to  the  consideration  of  the  practi- 
cal details,  which  he  felt  were  safe  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Fairbairn 
— "  a  gentleman,"  as  h#  stated  to  the  Committee  of  the  Com- 
mons, "whose  experience  was  greater  than  that  of  any  other  man 
in  England."  The  results  of  the  experiments  were  communi- 
cated to  him  from  time  to  time,  and  were  regarded  by  him  as 
exceedingly  satisfactory.  It  would  appear,  however,  that  while 
Mr.  Fairbairn  urged  the  sufficient  rigidity  and  strength  of  the 
tubes  without  the  aid  of  chains,  Mr.  Stephenson  had  not  quite 
made  up  his  mind  upon  the  point.  Mr.  Ilodgkinson,  also,  was 
strongly  inclined  to  retain  them.f  Mr.  Fairbairn  held  that  it 

*  "Mr.  Fairbairn's  Account, "p.  22. 

t  The  following  passage  occurs  in  Robert  Stephenson's  report  to  the  directors  of 
the  Chester  and  Holyhead  Railway,  dated  the  9th  of  February,  1846:  "You  will  ob- 
serve in  Mr.  Fairbairn's  remarks  that  he  contemplates  the  feasibility  of  stripping  the 
tube  entirely  of  all  the  chains  that  may  be  required  in  the  erection  of  the  bridge ; 
whereas,  on  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Hodgkinson  thinks  the  chains  will  be  an  essential, 
or,  at  all  events,  a  useful  auxiliary,  to  give  the  tube  the  requisite  strength  and  rigid- 


448  ROBERT  STEPHENSON'S  CAUTION.  [PART  II. 

was  quite  practicable  to  make  the  tubes  "  sufficiently  strong  to 
sustain  not  only  their  own  weight,  but,  in  addition  to  that  load, 
2000  tons  equally  distributed  over  the  surface  of  the  platform — 
a  load  ten  times  greater  than  they  will  ever  be  called  upon  to 
support." 

It  was  thoroughly  characteristic  of  Mr.  Stephenson,  and  of  the 
caution  with  which  he  proceeded  in  every  step  of  this  great  un- 
dertaking— probing  every  inch  of  the  ground  before  he  set  his 
foot  down  upon  it — that  he  should,  early  in  1846,  have  appointed 
his  able  assistant,  Mr.  Edwin  Clark,  to  scrutinize  carefully  the 
results  of  every  experiment,  whether  made  by  Mr.  Fairbairn  or 
Mr.  Hodgkinson,  and  subject  them  to  a  separate  and  independent 
analysis  before  finally  deciding  upon  the  form  or  dimensions  of 
the  structure,  or  upon  any  mode  of  procedure  connected  with  it. 
That  great  progress  had  been  made  by  the  two  chief  experiment- 
ers before  the  end  of  1846  appears  from  the  papers  on  the  sub- 
ject read  by  Messrs.  Fairbairn  and  Hodgkinson  before  the  British 
Association  at  Southampton  in  September  of  that  year.  In  the 
course  of  the  f  ollowing  month  Mr.  Stephenson  had  become  satis- 
fied that  the  use  of  auxiliary  chains  was  unnecessary,  and  that 
the  tubular  bridge  might  be  made  of  such  strength  as  to  be  en- 
tirely self-supporting.* 


ity.  This,  however,  will  be  determined  by  the  proposed  additional  experiments,  and 
does  not  interfere  with  the  construction  of  the  masbnry,  which  is  designed  so  as  to 
admit  of  the  tube,  with  or  without  chains.  The  application  of  chains  as  an  auxiliary 
has  occupied  much  of  my  attention,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  the  ordinary  mode  of  ap- 
plying them  to  suspension  bridges  is  wholly  inadmissible  in  the  present  instance ;  if, 
therefore,  it  be  hereafter  found  necessary  or  desirable  to  employ  them  in  conjunction 
with  the  tube,  another  mode  of  employing  them  must  be  devised,  as  it  is  absolutely 
essential  to  attach  them  in  such  a  manner  as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  the  small- 
est oscillation." 

*  In  a  letter  of  Mr.  Fairbairn  to  Mr.  Stephenson,  dated  July  18th,  1846,  he  says : 
"  To  get  rid  of  the  chains  will  be  a  desideratum ;  and  I  have  made  the  tube  of  such 
strength,  and  intend  putting  it  together  upon  such  a  principle,  as  will  insure  its  carry- 
ing a  dead  weight,  equally  distributed  over  its  hollow  surface,  of  4000  tons.  With  a 
bridge  of  such  powers,  what  have  we  to  fear  ?  and  why,  in  the  name  of  truth  and  in 
the  face  of  conclusive  facts,  should  we  hesitate  to  adopt  measures  calculated  not  only 
to  establish  the  principle  as  a  triumph  of  art,  but,  what  is  of  infinitely  more  import- 
ance to  the  shareholders,  the  saving  of  a  large  sum  of  money,  nearly  equal  to  half  the 
cost  of  the  bridge  ?  I  have  been  ably  assisted  by  Mr.  Clark  in  all  these  contrivances ; 
but  in  a  matter  of  such  importance  we  must  have  your  sanction  and  support." — "Mr. 
Fairbairn's  Account, "p.  93. 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  THE  WORKS  BEGUN.  449 

While  these  important  discussions  were  in  progress,  measures 
were  taken  to  proceed  with  the  masonry  of  the  bridges  simulta- 
neously at  Conway  and  the  Menai  Strait.  The  foundation-stone 
of  the  Britannia  Bridge  was  laid  by  Mr.  Frank  Forster,  the  resi- 
dent engineer,  on  the  10th  of  April,  1846 ;  and  on  the"12th  of 
May  following  that  of  the  Conway  Bridge  was  laid  by  Mr.  A.  M- 
Ross,  resident  engineer  at  that  part  of  the  works.  Suitable  plat- 
forms and  workshops  were  also  erected  for  proceeding  with  the 
punching,  fitting,  and  riveting  of  the  tubes ;  and  when  these  oper- 
ations were  in  full  progress,  the  neighborhood  of  the  Conway  and 
Britannia  Bridges  presented  scenes  of  extraordinary  bustle  and 
industry.  On  the  llth  of  July,  1847,  Mr.  Clark  informed  Mr. 
Stephenson  that  "  the  masonry  gets  on  rapidly.  The  abutments 
on  the  Anglesea  side  resemble  the  foundations  of  a  great  city 
rather  than  of  a  single  structure,  and  nothing  appears  to  stand 
still  here."  About  1500  men  were  employed  on  the  Britannia 
Bridge  alone,  and  they  mostly  lived  upon  the  ground  in  wooden 
cottages  erected  for  the  occasion.  The  iron  plates  were  brought 
in  ship-loads  from  Liverpool,  Anglesea  marble  from  Penmon,  and 
red  sandstone  from  Runcorn,  in  Cheshire,  as  wind  and  tide,  and 
shipping  and  convenience,  might  determine.  There  was  an  un- 
remitting clank  of  hammers,  grinding  of  machinery,  and  blasting 
of  rock  going  on  from  morning  to  night.  In  fitting  the  Britan- 
nia tubes  together  not  less  than  2,000,000  of  bolts  were  riveted, 
weighing  some  900  tons. 

The  Britannia  Bridge  consists  of  two  independent  continuous 
tubular  beams,  each  1511  feet  in  length,  and  each  weighing  4680 
tons,  independent  of  the  cast-iron  frames  inserted  at  their  bear- 
ings on  the  masonry  of  the  towers.  These  immense  beams  are 
supported  at  five  places,  namely,  on  the  abutments  and  on  three 
towers,  the  central  of  which  is  known  as  the  Great  Britannia 
Tower,  230  feet  high,  built  on  a  rock  in  the  middle  of  the  Strait. 
The  side  towers  are  18  feet  less  in  height  than  the  central  one, 
and  the  abutments  35  feet  lower  than  the  side  towers.  The  de- 
sign of  the  masonry  is  such  as  to  accord  with  the  form  of  the 
tubes,  being  somewhat  of  an  Egyptian  character,  massive  and 
gigantic  rather  than  beautiful,  but  bearing  the  unmistakable  im- 
press of  power. 

The  bridge  has  four  spans  — two  of  460  feet  over  the  water, 


450 


MAIN  BRITANNIA  TUBE. 


[PAETlL 


CONSTRUCTIO 


TUIiE  ON  THE  STAGING. 


and  two  of  230  feet  over  the  land.  The  weight  of  the  longer 
spans,  at  the  points  where  the  tubes  repose  on  the  masonry,  is  not 
less  than  1587  tons.  On  the  centre  tower  the  tubes  lie  splid ;  but 
on  the  land  towers  and  abutments  they  lie  on  roller-beds,  so  as  to 
allow  of  expansion  and  contraction.  The  road  within  each  tube 
is  15  feet  wide,  and  the  height  varies  from  23  feet  at  the  ends  to 
30  feet  at  the  centre.  To  give  an  idea  of  the  vast  size  of  the 
tubes  by  comparison  with  other  structures,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  each  length  constituting  the  main  spans  is  twice  as  long  as 
London  Monument  is  high ;  and  if  it  could  be  set  on  end  in  St. 
Paul's  Church-yard,  it  would  reach  nearly  100  feet  above  the 
cross. 

The  Conway  Bridge  is,  in  most  respects,  similar  to  the  Britan- 
nia, consisting  of  two  tubes  of  400  feet  span,  placed  side  by  side. 


CHAP.  XVIIL] 


THE  CONWA  Y  BRIDGE. 


451 


each  weighing  1180  tons.  The  principle  adopted  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  tubes,  and  the  mode  of  floating  and  raising  them,  was 
nearly  the  same  as  at  the  Britannia  Bridge,  though  the  general 
arrangement  of  the  plates  is  in  many  respects  different. 

It  was  determined  to  construct  the  shorter  outer  tubes  of  the 
Britannia  Bridge  on  scaffoldings  in  the  positions  in  which  they 
were  permanently  to  remain,  and  to  erect  the  larger  tubes  upon 
wooden  platforms  at  high-water-mark  on  the  Caernarvon  shore, 
from  whence  they  were  to  be  floated  in  pontoons — in  like  man- 
ner as  Rennie  had  floated  into  their  places  the  centerings  of  his 
Waterloo  and  other  bridges — and  then  raised  into  their  proper 
places  by  means  of  hydraulic  power,  after  a  method  originally 
suggested  by  Mr.  Edwin  Clark.  The  tubes  of  the  Con  way  Bridge 
also  were  to  be  constructed  on  shore,  and  floated  to  their  places 
on  pontoons,  as  in  the  case  of  the  main  centre  tubes  of  the  Britan- 
nia Bridge. 


452  THE  CONWAY  AND  BRITANNIA  TUBES.         [PART  II. 

The  floating  of  these  tubes  on  pontoons,  from  the  places  where 
they  had  been  constructed  to  the  recesses  in  the  masonry  of  the 
towers,  up  which  they  were  to  be  hoisted  to  the  places  they  were 
permanently  to  occupy,  was  an  anxious  and  exciting  operation. 
The  first  proceeding  of  this  nature  was  at  Conway,  where  Mr. 
Stephenson  directed  it  in  person,  assisted  by  Captain  Claxton,  Mr. 
Brunei,  and  other  engineering  friends.  On  the  6th  of  March, 
1848,  the  pontoons  bearing  the  first  great  tube  of  the  up-line  were 
floated  round  quietly  and  majestically  into  their  place  between 
the  towers  in  about  twenty  minutes.  Unfortunately,  one  of  the 
sets  of  pontoons  had  become  slightly  slued  by  the  stream,  by  which 
the  Conway  end  of  the  tube  was  prevented  from  being  brought 
home,  and  five  anxious  days  to  all  concerned  intervened  before  it 
could  be  set  in  its  place.  In  the  mean  time,  the  presses  and  rais- 
ing machinery  had  been  fitted  in  the  towers  above,  and  the  lift- 
ing process  was  begun  on  the  8th  of  April,  when  the  immense 
mass  was  raised  8  feet,  at  the  rate  of  about  2  inches  a  minute. 
On  the  16th  the  tube  had  been  raised  and  finally  lowered  into  its 
permanent  bed;  the  rails  were  laid  within  it;  and  on  the  18th 
Mr.  Stephenson  passed  through  with  the  first  locomotive.  The 
second  tube  was  proceeded  with  on  the  removal  of  the  first  from 
the  platform,  and  was  completed  and  floated  in  seven  months. 
The  rapidity  with  which  this  second  tube  was  constructed  was 
in  no  small  degree  owing  to  the  Jacquard  punching-machine,  con- 
trived for  the  purpose  of  punching  the  holes  for  the  rivets  by  Mr. 
Roberts,  of  Manchester.  The  tube  was  finally  fixed  in  its  perma- 
nent bed  on  the  2d  of  January,  1849. 

The  floating  and  fixing  of  the  great  Britannia  tubes  was  a  still 
more  formidable  enterprise,  though  the  experience  gained  at  Con- 
way  rendered  it  easy  compared  with  what  it  otherwise  would  have 
been.  Mr.  Stephenson  superintended  the  operation  of  floating  the 
first  in  person,  giving  the  arranged  signals  from  the  top  of  the 
tube  on  which  he  was  mounted,  the  active  part  of  the  business 
being  performed  by  a  numerous  corps  of  sailors,  under  the  imme- 
diate direction  of  Captain  Claxton.  Thousands  of  spectators  lined 
the  shores  of  the  Strait  on  the  evening  of  the  19th  of  June,  1849. 
On  the  land  attachments  being  cut,  the  pontoons  began  to  float 
off ;  but  one  of  the  capstans  having  given  way  from  the  too  great 
strain  put  upon  it,  the  tube  was  brought  home  again  for  the  night. 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  FLOATING  OF  THE  FIRST  BRITANNIA  TUBE.      453 

By  next  morning  the  defective  capstan  was  restored,  and  all  was 
in  readiness  for  another  trial.  At  half  past  seven  in  the  evening 
the  tube  was  afloat,  and  the  pontoons  swung  out  into  the  current 
like  a  monster  pendulum,  held  steady  by  the  shore  guide-lines, 
but  increasing  in  speed  to  almost  a  fearful  extent  as  they  neared 
their  destined  place  between  the  piers. 

"  The  success  of  this  operation,"  says  Mr.  Clark, "  depended  main- 
ly on  properly  striking  the  *  butt'  beneath  the  Anglesey  tower,  on 
which,  as  upon  a  centre,  the  tube  was  to  be  veered  round  into  its 
position  across  the  opening.  This  position  was  determined  by  a 
12-inch  line,  which  was  to  be  paid  out  to  a  fixed  mark  from  the 
Llanfair  capstan.  The  coils  of  the  rope  unfortunately  overrode 
each  other  upon  this  capstan,  so  that  it  could  not  be  paid  out.  In 
resisting  the  motion  of  the  tube,  the  capstan  was  bodily  dragged 
out  of  the  platform  by  the  action  of  the  palls,  and  the  tube  was  in 
imminent  danger  of  being  carried  away  by  the  stream,  or  the  pon- 
toons crushed  upon  the  rocks.  The  men  at  the  capstan  were  all 
knocked  down,  and  some  of  them  thrown  into  the  water,  though 
they  made  every  exertion  to  arrest  the  motion  of  the  capstan-bars. 
In  this  dilemma,  Mr.  Charles  Rolfe,  who  had  charge  of  the  capstan, 
with  great  presence  of  mind  called  the  visitors  on  shore  to  his  as- 
sistance ;  and  handing  out  the  spare  coil  of  the  1 2-inch  line  into  the 
field  at  the  back  of  the  capstan,  it  was  carried  with  great  rapidity 
up  the  field,  and  a  crowd  of  people,  men,  women,  and  children,  hold- 
ing on  to  this  huge  cable,  arrested  the  progress  of  the  tube,  which 
was  at  length  brought  safely  against  the  butt  and  veered  round. 
The  Britannia  end  was  then  drawn  into  the  recess  of  the  masonry 
by  a  chain  passing  through  the  tower  to  a  crab  on  the  far  side. 
The  violence  of  the  tide  abated,  though  the  wind  increased,  and  the 
Anglesey  end  was  drawn  into  its  place  beneath  the  corbeling  in  the 
masonry ;  and  as  the  tide  went  down,  the  pontoons  deposited  their 
valuable  cargo  on  the  welcome  shelf  at  each  end.  The  successful 
issue  was  greeted  by  cannon  from  the  shore  and  the  hearty  cheers 
of  many  thousands  of  spectators,  whose  sympathy  and  anxiety  were 
but  too  clearly  indicated  by  the  unbroken  silence  with  which  the 
whole  operation  had  been  accompanied."* 

By  midnight  all  the  pontoons  had  been  got  clear  of  the  tube; 
which  now  hung  suspended  over  the  waters  of  the  Strait  by  its 

*  "  The  Britannia  and  Conway  Tubular  Bridges."  By  Edwin  Clark.  Vol.  ii., 
p.  683-4. 


454  THE  ENGINEER'S  GREAT  ANXIETY.  [PART  II. 

two  ends,  which  rested  upon  the  edges  cut  in  the  rock  for  the 
purpose  at  the  base  of  the  Britannia  and  Anglesey  towers  respect- 
ively, up  which  the  tube  had  now  to  be  lifted  by  hydraulic  power 
to  its  permanent  place  near  the  summit.  The  accuracy  with 
which  the  gigantic  beam  had  been  constructed  may  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that,  after  passing  into  its  place,  a  clear  space  re- 
mained between  the  iron  plating  and  the  rock  outside  of  it  of 
only  about  three  quarters  of  an  inch ! 

Mr.  Stephenson's  anxiety  was,  of  course,  very  great  up  to  the 
time  of  effecting  this  perilous  operation.  When  he  had  got  the 
first  tube  floated  at  Conway  and  saw  all  safe,  he  said  to  Captain 
Moorsom, "  Now  I  shall  go  to  bed."  But  the  Britannia  Bridge 
was  a  still  more  difficult  enterprise,  and  cost  him  many  a  sleep- 
less night.  Afterward  describing  his  feelings  to  his  friend  Mr. 
Gooch,  he  said, "  It  was  a  most  anxious  and  harassing  time  with 
me.  Often  at  night  I  would  lie  tossing  about,  seeking  sleep  in 
vain.  The  tubes  filled  my  head.  I  went  to  bed  with  them  and 
got  up  with  them.  In  the  gray  of  the  morning,  when  I  looked 
across  the  Square,*  it  seemed  an  immense  distance  across  to  the 
houses  on  the  opposite  side.  It  was  nearly  the  same  length  as 
the  span  of  my  tubular  bridge !"  When  the  first"  tube  had  been 
floated,  a  friend  observed  to  him,"  This  great  work  has  made  you 
ten  years  older,"  "  I  have  not  slept  sound,"  he  replied, "for  three 
weeks."  Sir  F.  Head,  however,  relates  that,  when  he  revisited  the 
spot  on  the  following  morning,  he  observed,  sitting  on  a  platform 
overlooking  the  suspended  tube,  a  gentleman,  reclining  entirely 
by  himself,  smoking  a  cigar,  and  gazing,  as  if  indolently,  at  the 
aerial  gallery  beneath  him.  It  was  the  engineer  himself,  con- 
templating his  newborn  child.  He  had  strolled  down  from  the 
neighboring  village,  after  his  first  sound  and  refreshing  sleep  for 
weeks,  to  behold  in  sunshine  and  solitude  that  which,  during  a 
weary  period  of  gestation,  had  been  either  mysteriously  moving 
in  his  brain,  or,  like  a  vision — sometimes  of  good  omen  and  some- 
times of  evil — had,  by  night  as  well  as  by  day,  been  flitting  across 
his  mind. 

The  next  process  was  the  lifting  of  the  tube  into  its  place, 
which  was  performed  very  deliberately  and  cautiously.  It  was 
raised  by  powerful  hydraulic  presses,  only  a  few  feet  at  a  time, 

*  No.  34  Gloucester  Square,  Hyde  Park,  where  he  lived. 


CHAP.XVIIL]  FALL  OF  THE  MAIN  TUBE!  455 

and  carefully  under-built,  before  being  raised  to  a  f arther  height. 
When  it  had  been  got  up  by  successive  stages  of  this  kind  to 
about  24  feet,  an  extraordinary  accident  occurred,  during  Mr.  Ste- 
phenson's  absence  in  London,  which  he  afterward  described  to 
the  author  in  as  nearly  as  possible  the  following  words :  "  In  a 
work  of  such  novelty  and  magnitude,  you  may  readily  imagine 
how  anxious  I  was  that  every  possible  contingency  should  be  pro- 
vided for.  Where  one  chain  or  rope  was  required,  I  provided 
two.  I  was  not  satisfied  with  '  enough :'  I  must  have  absolute 
security,  so  far  as  that  was  possible.  I  knew  the  consequences  of 
failure  would  be  most  disastrous  to  the  company,  and  that  the 
wisest  economy  was  to  provide  for  all  contingencies,  at  whatever 
cost.  When  the  first  tube  at  the  Britannia  had  been  successfully 
floated  between  the  piers,  ready  for  being  raised,  my  young  engi- 
neers were  very  much  elated ;  and  when  the  hoisting  apparatus 
had  been  fixed,  they  wrote  to  me,  saying, '  We  are  now  all  ready 
for  raising  her :  we  could  do  it  in  a  day,  or  in  two  at  the  most.' 
But  my  reply  was,  No ;  you  must  only  raise  the  tube  inch  by  inch, 
and  you  must  build  up  under  it  as  you  rise.  Every  inch  must 
be  made  good.  Nothing  must  be  left  to  chance  or  good  luck. 
And  fortunate  it  was  that  I  insisted  upon  this  cautious  course 
being  pursued ;  for,  one  day,  while  the  hydraulic  presses  were  at 
work,  the  bottom  of  one  of  them  burst  clean  away !  The  cross- 
head  and  the  chains,  weighing  more  than  50  tons,  descended  with 
a  fearful  crash  upon  the  press,  and  the  tube  itself  fell  down  upon 
the  packing  beneath.  Though  the  fall  of  the  tube  was  not  more 
than  nine  inches,  it  crunched  solid  castings,  weighing  tons,  as  if 
they  had  been  nuts.  The  tube  itself  was  slightly  strained  and 
deflected,  though  it  still  remained  sufficiently  serviceable.  But 
it  was  a  tremendous  test  to  which  it  was  put,  for  a  weight  of  up- 
ward of  5000  tons  falling  even  a  few  inches  must  be  admitted  to 
be  a  very  serious  matter.  That  it  stood  so  well  was  extraordi- 
nary. Clark. immediately  wrote  me  an  account  of  the  circum- 
stance, in  which  he  said, '  Thank  God  you  have  been  so  obstinate ; 
for  if  this  accident  had  occurred  without  a  bed  for  the  end  of  the 
tube  to  fall  on,  the  whole  would  now  have  been  lying  across  the 
bottom  of  the  Straits.'  Five  thousand  pounds  extra  expense  was 
caused  by  this  accident,  slight  though  it  might  seem.  But  care- 
ful provision  was  made  against  future  failure ;  a  new  and  im- 


4:56  STEPHENSON  CAIRN.— HYDRAULIC  PRESSES.    [PART  II. 

proved  cylinder  was  provided ;  and  the  work  was  very  soon  ad- 
vancing satisfactorily  toward  completion."* 

When  the  queen  first  visited  the  Britannia  Bridge,  on  her  re- 
turn from  the  North  in  1852,Eobert  Stephenson  accompanied  her 
majesty  and  Prince  Albert  over  the  works,  explaining  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  the  bridge  had  been  built,  and  the  difficulties 
which  had  attended  its  erection.  He  conducted  the  royal  party 
to  near  the  margin  of  the  sea,  and,  after  describing  to  them  the 
incident  of  the  fall  of  the  tube,  and  the  reason  of  its  preservation, 
he  pointed  with  pardonable  pride  to  a  pile  of  stones  which  the 
workmen  had  there  raised  to  commemorate  the  event.  While 
nearly  all  the  other  marks  of  the  work  during  its  progress  had 
been  obliterated,  that  cairn  had  been  left  standing  in  commemo- 
ration of  the  caution  and  foresight  of  their  chief. 

The  floating  and  raising  of  the  remaining  tubes  need  not  be 
described  in  detail.  The  second  was  floated  on  the  3d  of  De- 
cember, and  set  in  its  permanent  place  on  the  7th  of  January, 
1850.  The  othersf  were  floated  and  raised  in  due  course ;  on 

*  The  hydraulic  presses  were  of  an  extraordinary  character.  The  cylinders  of 
those  first  constructed  were  of  wrought  iron  (cast  iron  being  found  altogether  useless), 
not  less  than  8  inches  thick.  They  were  tested  by  being  subjected  to  an  internal 
pressure  of  3  or  3£  tons  to  the  circular  inch.  The  pressure  was  such  that  it  squeezed 
the  fibres  of  the  iron  together ;  so  that,  after  a  few  tests  of  this  character,  the  piston, 
which  at  first  fitted  it  quite  closely,  was  found  considerably  too  small.  "A  new  pis- 
ton," says  Mr.  Clark,  "was  then  made  to  suit  the  enlarged  cylinder;  and  a  farther 
enlargement  occurring  again  and  again  with  subsequent  use,  the  new  pistons  became 
as  formidable  an  obstacle  as  the  cylinders.  The  wrought-iron  cylinder  was  on  the 
point  of  being  abandoned,  when  Mr.  Amos  (the  iron  manufacturer),  having  carefully 
gauged  the  cylinder  inside  and  out,  found  to  his  surprise  that,  although  the  internal 
diameter  had  increased  considerably,  the  external  diameter  had  retained  precisely  its 
original  dimensions.  He  consequently  persevered  in  the  construction  of  new  pistons, 
and  ultimately  found  that  the  cylinder  enlarged  no  longer,  and  to  this  day  it  contin- 
ues in  constant  use.  Layer  after  layer  having  attained  additional  permanent  set, 
sufficient  material  was  at  length  brought  into  play,  with  sufficient  tenacity  to  with- 
stand the  pressure ;  and  thus  an  obstacle,  apparently  insurmountable,  and  which 
threatened  at  one  time  to  render  much  valuable  machinery  useless,  was  entirely  over- 
come. The  workman  may'  be  excused  for  calling  the  stretched  cylinder  stronger 
than  the  new  one,  though  it  is  only  stronger  as  regards  the  amount  of  its  yielding  to 
a  given  force." — Clark,  vol.  i.,p.  306.  .The  hydraulic  presses  used  in  raising  the 
tubes  of  the  Britannia  Bridge,  it  may  be  remembered,  were  afterward  used  in  starting 
the  Great  Eastern  from  her  berth  on  the  shore  at  Milwall,  where  she  had  been  built. 

t  While  the  preparations  were  in  progress  for  floating  the  third  tube,  Mr.  Stephen- 
son  received  a  pressing  invitation  to  a  public  railway  celebration  at  Darlington,  in 
honor  of  his  old  friend,  Edward  Pease.  His  reply,  dated  the  loth  of  May,  1850,  was 


CHAP.  XVIII.] 


THE  MENAI  BRIDGE. 


457 


MENAI  BEIDGE.    [By  Percival  Skelton,  after  his  original  Drawing.] 


the  5th  of  March  Mr.  Stephenson  put  the  last  rivet  in  the  tube, 
and  passed  through  the  completed  bridge,  accompanied  by  about 

as  follows  :  "I  am  prevented  having  the  pleasure  of  a  visit  to  Darlington  on  the  22d, 
owing  to  that  or  the  following  day  having  been  fixed  upon  for  floating  the  next  tube 
at  the  Menai  Straits ;  and  as  this  movement  depends  on  the  tide,  it  is,  of  course,  im- 
possible for  me  to  alter  the  arrangements.  I  sincerely  regret  this  circumstance,  for 
every  early  association  connected  with  my  profession  would  have  tended  to  render 
my  visit  a  gratifying  one.  It  would,  moreover,  have  given  me  an  opportunity  of  say- 
ing publicly  how  much  the  wonderful  progress  of  railways  was  dependent  upon  the 
successful  issue  of  the  first  great  experiment,  and  how  much  that  issue  was  influenced 
by  your  great  discernment,  and  your  confidence  in  my  late  revered  father.  In  my 
remembrance  you  stand  among  the  foremost  of  his  patrons  and  early  advisers ;  and  I 
know  that  throughout  his  life  he  regarded  you  as  one  of  his  very  best  friends.  One 
of  the  things  in  which  he  took  especial  delight  was  in  frequently  and  very  graphically 
describing  his  first  visit  to  Darlington,  on  foot,  to  confer  with  you  on  the  subject  of 
the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway." 


458  THE  BRITANNIA  BRIDGE  A  MONUMENT        [PART  II. 

a  thousand  persons,  drawn  by  three  locomotives.  The  bridge 
was  found  almost  entirely  rigid,  scarcely  showing  the  slightest 
deflection.  When,  in  the  course  of  the  day,  a  train  of  200  tons 
of  coal  was  allowed  to  rest  with  all  its  weight,  for  two  hours,  in 
the  centre  of  the  eastern  land  tube,  the  deflection  was  only  four 
tenths  of  an  inch,  or  less  than  that  produced  upon  the  structure 
by  half  an  hour's  sunshine  ;*  while  the  whole  bridge  might  with 
safety,  and  without  injury  to  itself,  be  deflected  to  the  extent  of 
13  inches.  The  bridge  was  opened  for  public  trafiic  on  the  18th 
of  March.  The  cost  of  the  whole  work  was  £234,450. 

The  Britannia  Bridge  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  monu- 
ments of  the  enterprise  and  skill  of  the  present  century.  Kobert 
Stephenson  was  the  master  spirit  of  the  undertaking.  To  him 
belongs  the  merit  of  first  seizing  the  ideal  conception  of  the 
structure  best  adapted  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  case,  and  of 
selecting  the  best  men  to  work  out  his  idea,  himself  watching, 
controlling,  and  testing  every  result  by  independent  check  and 
counter-check.  And,  finally,  he  organized  and  directed,  through 
his  assistants,  the  vast  band  of  skilled  workmen  and  laborers  who 
were  for  so  many  years  occupied  in  carrying  his  magnificent 
original  conception  to  a  successful  practical  issue. 

But  it  was  not  accomplished  without  the  greatest  anxiety  and 
mental  pressure.  Mr.  Clark  has  well  observed  that  few  persons 
who  merely  witness  the  results  of  the  engineer's  labors  can  form 
any  conception  of  the  real  difficulties  overcome,  and  the  intense 
anxiety  involved  in  their  elaboration.  "  If  the  stranger,"  he  says, 
"  who  contemplates  the  finished  reality,  requires  so  much  thought 

*  The  effect  of  sunshine  in  deflecting  the  bridge  is  very  curious.  When  the  first 
main  tube  was  tested,  ballast-wagons  loaded  with  iron  were  drawn  into  the  centre 
and  left  standing  there.  The  first  20  tons  increased  the  deflection  an  eighth  of  an 
inch,  and  with  50  tons  the  deflection  was  9  inches.  After  standing  all  night,  the  de- 
flection in  the  morning  was  found  to  be  only  8f  inches.  How  was  this  to  be  account- 
ed for?  Mr.  Ckrk  says :  "  This  was  attributed  at  the  time  to  an  error  made  in  the 
reading ;  but  this,  and  many  other  anomalies  in  the  deflection,  were  afterward  fully 
accounted  for  by  local  changes  of  temperature.  A  gleam  of  sunshine  on  the  top  of 
the  tube  raised  it  on  one  occasion  nearly  an  inch  in  half  an  hour  with  200  tons  at  the 
centre,  the  top  plates  being  expanded  by  increase  of  temperature,  while  the  lower 
plates  remained  constant  from  radiation  to  the  water  immediately  beneath  them.  In 
a  similar  manner,  the  tube  was  drawn  sidewise  to  the  extent  of  an  inch  from  the  sun 
shining  on  one  side,  and  returned  immediately  as  clouds  passed  over  the  sun,  being,  in 
fact,  a  most  delicate  thermometer  in  constant  motion,  both  vertically  and  laterally." 


CHAP.  XVIIL]  OF  SKILL  AND  INDUSTRY.  459 

to  appreciate  its  principles  and  comprehend  its  detail,  what  wea- 
ry hours  must  he  have  undergone  who  first  conceived  its  bold 
proportions — who,  combating,  almost  alone,  every  prejudice  that 
assailed  him,  and  with  untiring  labor  discussing  every  objection, 
listening  to  every  opinion,  and  embodying  every  inquiry,  at  length 
matured,  step  by  step,  this  noble  monument  ?"  On  the  occasion 
of  raising  the  last  tube  into  its  place,  Mr.  Stephenson  declared,  in 
reply  to  the  felicitations  of  a  large  company  who  had  witnessed 
the  proceedings  with  intense  interest,  that  not  all  the  triumph 
which  attended  this  great  work,  and  the  solution  of  the  difficult 
problem  of  carrying  a  rigid  roadway  across  an  arm  of  the  sea  at 
such  a  height  as  to  allow  the  largest  vessels  to  pass  with  all  their 
sails  set  beneath  it,  could  repay  him  for  the  anxieties  he  had  gone 
through,  the  friendships  he  had  compromised,  and  the  unworthy 
motives  which  had  been  attributed  to  him ;  and  that,  were  an. 
other  work  of  the  same  magnitude  offered  to  him  with  like  con- 
sequences, he  would  not  for  worlds  undertake  it ! 

The  Britannia  Bridge  was  indeed  the  result  of  a  vast  combi- 
nation of  skill  and  industry.  But  for  the  perfection  of  our  tools, 
and  the  ability  of  our  mechanics  to  use  them  to  the  greatest  ad- 
vantage— but  for  the  matured  powers  of  the  steam-engine — but 
for  the  improvements  in  the  iron  manufacture,  which  enabled 
blooms  to  be  puddled  of  sizes  before  deemed  impracticable,  and 
plates  and  bars  of  immense  size  to  be  rolled  and  forged — but  for 
these,  the  Britannia  Bridge  would  have  been  designed  in  vain. 
Thus  it  was  not  the  product  of  the  genius  of  the  railway  engi- 
neer alone,  but  of  the  collective  mechanical  genius  of  the  English 
nation. 


T  BBIDGE— FLOATIXO  THE  FIBOT  TUBE. 


VIEW  IN  TAFTON  GARDENS.    [By  Percival  Skelton.] 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

CLOSING   YEARS   OF   GEORGE   STEPHENSON'S  LIFE — ILLNESS  AXD 

DEATH — CHARACTER. 

IN  describing  the  completion  of  the  series  of  great  works  de- 
tailed in  the  preceding  chapter,  we  have  somewhat  anticipated 
the  closing  years  of  George  Stephenson's  life.  He  could  not  fail 
to  take  an  anxious  interest  in  the  success  of  his  son's  designs,  and 
he  paid  many  visits  to  Conway  and  to  Menai  during  the  progress 
of  the  bridges.  He  was  present  on  the  occasion  of  the  floating 
and  raising  of  the  first  Conway  tube,  and  there  witnessed  a  proof 
of  the  soundness  of  Robert's  judgment  as  to  the  efficiency  and 
strength  of  the  structure,  of  which  he  had  at  first  expressed  some 
doubt ;  but  before  the  like  test  could  be  applied  at  the  Britannia 
Bridge,  George  Stephenson's  mortal  anxieties  were  at  an  end,  for 
he  had  then  ceased  from  all  his  labors. 

Toward  the  close  of  his  life,  George  Stephenson  almost  entirely 
withdrew  from  the  active  pursuit  of  his  profession.  He  devoted 
himself  chiefly  to  his  extensive  collieries  and  lime-works,  taking 
a  local  interest  only  in  such  projected  railways  as  were  calculated 
to  open  up  new  markets  for  their  products. 

At  home  he  lived  the  life  of  a  country  gentleman,  enjoying  his 
garden  and  grounds,  and  indulging  his  love  of  nature,  which, 
through  all  his  busy  life,  had  never  left  him.  It  was  not  until 
the  year  1845  that  he  took  an  active  interest  in  horticultural  pur- 
suits. Then  he  began  to  build  new  melon-houses,  pineries,  and 


CHAP.XTX.]  GARDENING  AT  TAPTON.  461 

vineries,  of  great  extent ;  and  he  now  seemed  as  eager  to  excel 
all  other  growers  of  exotic  plants  in  his  neighborhood,  as  he  had 
been  some  thirty  years  before  to  surpass  the  villagers  of  Killing- 
worth  in  the  production  of  cabbages  and  cauliflowers.  He  had 
a  pine-house  built  68  feet  in  length  and  a  vinery  140  feet  Work- 
men were  constantly  employed  in  enlarging  them,  until  at  length 
he  had  no  fewer  than  ten  glass  forcing-houses.  He  did  not  take 
so  much  pleasure  in  flowers  as  in  fruits.  At  one  of  the  county 
agricultural  meetings  he  said  that  he  intended  yet  to  grow  pine- 
apples at  Tapton  as  big  as  pumpkins.  The  only  man  to  whom 
he  would  "  knock  under"  was  his  friend  Paxton,  the  gardener  to 
the  Duke  of  Devonshire ;  but  he  was  so  old  in  the  sendee,  and 
so  skillful,  that  he  could  scarcely  hope  to  beat  him.  Yet  his 
"  Queen"  pines  did  take  the  first  prize  at  a  competition  with  the 
duke,  though  this  was  not  until  shortly  after  his  death,  when  the 
plants  had  become  fully  grown.  Stephenson's  grapes  also  took 
the  first  prize  at  Rotherham,  at  a  competition  open  to  all  England. 
He  was  extremely  successful  in  producing  melons,  having  invent- 
ed a  method  of  suspending  them  in  baskets  of  wire  gauze,  wliich, 
by  relieving  the  stalk  from  tension,  allowed  nutrition  to  proceed 
more  freely,  and  better  enabled  the  fruit  to  grow  and  ripen. 

He  also  took  much  pride  in  his  growth  of  cucumbers.  He 
raised  them  very  fine  and  large,  but  he  could  not  make  them 
grow  straight.  Place  them  as  he  would,  notwithstanding  all  his 
propping  and  humoring  of  them  by  modifying  the  application  of 
heat  and  the  admission  of  light,  they  would  still  insist  on  grow- 
ing crooked  in  their  own  way.  At  last  he  had  a  number  of  glass 
cylinders  made  at  Newcastle,  and  into  these  the  growing  cucum- 
bers were  inserted,  when  at  last  he  succeeded  in  growing  them 
perfectly  straight.  Carrying  one  of  the  new  products  into  liis 
house  one  day,  and  exhibiting  it  to  a  party  of  visitors,  he  told 
them  of  the  expedient  he  had  adopted,  and  added,  "  I  think  I 
have  bothered  them  noo !" 

Farming  operations  were  also  carried  on  by  him  with  success. 
He  experimented  on  manure,  and  fed  cattle  after  methods  of  his 
own.  He  was  very  particular  as  to  breed  and  build  in  stock- 
breeding.  «  You  see,  sir,"  he  said  to  one  gentleman, « I  like  to 
see  the  coo's  back  at  a  gradient  something  like  this"  (drawing  an 
imaginary  line  with  his  hand), "  and  then  the  ribs  or  girders  will 


462  BIRDS  AND  BEES.  [PART  II. 

carry  more  flesh  than  if  they  were  so — or  so."  When  he  attend- 
ed the  county  agricultural  meetings,  which  he  frequently  did,  he 
was  accustomed  to  take  part  in  the  discussions,  and  he  brought 
the  same  vigorous  practical  mind  to  bear  upon  questions  of  till- 
age, drainage,  and  farm  economy  which  he  had  before  been  ac- 
customed to  exercise  on  mechanical  and  engineering  matters. 

All  his  early  affection  for  birds  and  animals  revived.  He  had 
favorite  dogs,  and  cows,  and  horses ;  and  again  he  began  to  keep 
rabbits,  and  to  pride  himself  on  the  beauty  of  his  breed.  There 
was  not  a  bird's  nest  in  the  grounds  that  he  did  not  know  of ;  and 
from  day  to  day  he  went  round  watching  the  progress  which  the 
birds  made  with  their  building,  carefully  guarding  them  from 
harm.  His  minute  knowledge  of  the  habits  of  British  birds  was 
the  result  of  a  long,  loving,  and  close  observation  of  nature. 

At  Tapton  he  remembered  the  failure  of  Ins  early  experiment 
in  hatching  birds'  eggs  by  heat,  and  he  now  performed  it  success- 
fully, being  able  to  secure  a  proper  apparatus  for  maintaining  a 
uniform  temperature.  He  was  also  curious  about  the  breeding 
and  fattening  of  fowls ;  and  when  his  friend  Edward  Pease,  of 
Darlington,  visited  him  at  Tapton,  he  explained  a  method  which 
he  had  invented  of  fattening  chickens  in  half  the  usual  time. 
The  chickens  were  confined  in  boxes,  which  were  so  made  as  to 
exclude  the  light.  Dividing  the  day  into  two  or  three  periods, 
the  birds  were  shut  up  at  the  end  of  each  after  a  heavy  feed, 
and  went  to  sleep.  The  plan  proved  very  successful,  and  Mr. 
Stephenson  jocularly  said  that  if  he  were  to  devote  himself  to 
chickens  he  could  soon  make  a  little  fortune. 

Mrs.  Stephenson  tried  to  keep  bees,  but  found  they  would  not 
thrive  at  Tapton.  Many  hives  perished,  and  there  was  no  case 
of  success.  The  cause  of  failure  was  long  a  mystery  to  the  en- 
gineer; but  one  day  his  acute  powers  of  observation  enabled  him 
to  unravel  it.  At  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  which  Tapton  House 
stands,  he  saw  some  bees  trying  to  rise  up  from  among  the  grass, 
laden  with  honey  and  wax.  They  were  already  exhausted,  as  if 
with  long  flying ;  and  then  it  occurred  to  him  that  the  height  at 
which  the  house  stood  above  the  bees'  feeding-ground  rendered 
it  difficult  for  them  to  reach  their  hives  when  heavy  laden,  and 
hence  they  sank  exhausted.  He  afterward  incidentally  men- 
tioned the  circumstance  to  Mr.  Jesse,  the  naturalist,  who  concur- 


CHAP. XIX.]  LOVE  OF  CONVERSATION.  463 

red  in  his  view  as  to  the  cause  of  failure,  and  was  much  struck 
by  the  keen  observation  which  had  led  to  its  solution. 

George  Stephenson  had  none  of  the  habits  of  the  student.  He 
read  very  little ;  for  reading  is  a  habit  which  is  generally  ac- 
quired in  youth,  and  his  youth  and  manhood  had  been,  for  the 
most  part,  spent  in  hard  work.  Books  wearied  him  and  sent  him 
to  sleep.  Novels  excited  his  feelings  too  much,  and  he  avoided 
them,  though  he  would  occasionally  read  through  a  pliilosophical 
work  on  a  subject  in  which  he  felt  particularly  interested.  He 
wrote  very  few  letters  with  his  own  hand.  Nearly  all  his  letters 
were  dictated,  and  he  avoided  even  dictation  when  he  could. 
His  greatest  pleasure  was  in  conversation,  from  which  he  gather- 
ed most  of  his  imparted  information. 

It  was  his  practice,  when  about  to  set  out  on  a  journey  by  rail- 
way, to  walk  along  the  train  before  it  started,  and  look  into  the 
carriages  to  see  if  he  could  find  "  a  conversible  face."  On  one 
of  such  occasions,  at  the  Euston  Station,  he  discovered  in  a  car- 
riage a  very  handsome,  manly,  and  intelligent  face,  which  he  af- 
terward found  was  that  of  the  late  Lord  Denman.  He  was  on 
his  way  down  to  his  seat  at  Stony  Middelton,  in  Derbyshire. 
Stephenson  entered  the  carriage,  and  the  two  were  shortly  en- 
gaged in  interesting  conversation.  It  turned  upon  chronometry 
and  horology,  and  the  engineer  amazed  his  lordship  by  the  ex- 
tent of  his  knowledge  on  the  subject,  in  which  he  displayed  as 
much  minute  information,  even  down  to  the  latest  improvements 
in  watch-making,  as  if  he  had  been  bred  a  watchmaker  and  lived 
by  the  trade.  Lord  Denman  was  curious  to  know  how  a  man 
whose  time  must  have  been  mainly  engrossed  by  engineering  had 
gathered  so  much  knowledge  on  a  subject  quite  out  of  his  own 
line,  and  he  asked  the  question.  "  I  learned  clockmaking  and 
watchmaking,"  was  the  answer, "  while  a  working-man  at  Killing- 
worth,  when  I  made  a  little  money  in  my  spare  hours  by  clean- 
ing the  pitmen's  clocks  and  watches ;  and  since  then  I  have  kept 
up  my  information  on  the  subject."  This  led  to  farther  ques- 
tions, and  then  he  proceeded  to  tell  Lord  Denman  the  interesting 
story  of  his  life,  which  held  him  entranced  during  the  remainder 
of  the  journey. 

Many  of  his  friends  readily  accepted  invitations  to  Tapton 
House  to  enjoy  his  hospitality,  which  never  failed.  With  them 


464  HOSPITALITY  AT  TAPTON  HOUSE.  [PART  II. 

he  would  "  fight  his  battles  o'er  again,"  reverting  often  to  his 
battle  for  the  locomotive ;  and  he  was  never  tired  of  telling,  nor 
were  his  auditors  of  listening  to,  the  lively  anecdotes  with  which 
he  was  accustomed  to  illustrate  the  struggles  of  his  early  career. 
While  walking  in  the  woods  or  through  the  grounds,  he  would 
arrest  his  friends'  attention  by  allusion  to  some  simple  object — 
such  as  a  leaf,  a  blade  of  grass,  a  bit  of  bark,  a  nest  of  birds,  or 
an  ant  carrying  its  eggs  across  the  path — and  descant  in  glowing 
terms  on  the  creative  power  of  the  Divine  Mechanician,  whose 
contrivances  were  so  exhaustless  and  so  wonderful.  This  was  a 
theme  upon  which  he  was  often  accustomed  to  dwell  in  reveren- 
tial admiration  when  in  the  society  of  his  more  intimate  friends. 

One  night,  when  walking  under  the  stars,  and  gazing  up  into 
the  field  of  suns,  each  the  probable  centre  of  a  system,  forming 
the  Milky  Way,  a  friend  observed, "  What  an  insignificant  creat- 
ure is  man  in  sight  of  so  immense  a  creation  as  this !"  "  Yes !" 
was  his  reply :  "  but  how  wonderful  a  creature  also  is  man,  to  be 
able  to  think  and*  reason,  and  even  in  some  measure  to  compre- 
hend works  so  infinite !" 

A  microscope  which  he  had  brought  down  to  Tapton  was  a 
source  of  immense  enjoyment,  and  he  was  never  tired  of  contem- 
plating the  minute  wonders  which  it  revealed.  One  evening, 
when  some  friends  were  visiting  him,  he  induced  each  of  them 
to  puncture  his  skin  so  as  to  draw  blood,  in  order  that  he  might 
examine  the  globules  through  the  microscope.  One  of  the  gen- 
tlemen present  was  a  teetotaler,  and  Stephenson  pronounced  his 
blood  to  be  the  most  lively  of  the  whole.  He  had  a  theory  of 
his  own  about  the  movement  of  the  globules  in  the  blood,  which 
has  since  become  familiar.  It  was,  that  they  were  respectively 
charged  with  electricity,  positive  at  one  end  and  negative  at  the 
other,  and  that  they  thus  attracted  and  repelled  each  other,  caus- 
ing a  circulation.  No  sooner  did  he  observe  any  thing  new  than 
he  immediately  set  about  devising  a  reason  for  it.  His  training 
in  mechanics,  his  practical  familiarity  with  matter  in  all  its  forms, 
and  the  strong  bent  of  his  mind,  led  him  first  of  all  to  seek  for 
a  mechanical  explanation ;  and  yet  he  was  ready  to  admit  that 
there  was  a  something  in  the  principle  of  life — so  mysterious  and 
inexplicable — which  baffled  mechanics,  and  seemed  to  dominate 
over  and  control  them.  He  did  not  care  much,  either,  for  ab- 


CHAP.  XIX.]     LOVE  OF  FUN.— A  "CROWDIE"  NIGHT. 


465 


struse  mechanics,  but  only  for  the  experimental  and  practical,  as 
is  usually  the  case  with  those  whose  knowledge  has  been  self -ac- 
quired. 

Even  at  his  advanced  age  the  spirit  of  frolic  had  not  left 

him.  When  proceeding 
from  Chesterfield  Station 
to  Tapton  House  with  his 
friends,  he  would  almost 
invariably  challenge  them 
to  a  race  up  the  steep  path, 
partly  formed  of  stone 
steps,  along  the  hill-side. 
And  he  would  struggle,  as 
of  old,  to  keep  the  front 
place,  though  by  this  time 
his  "  wind"  greatly  failed 
him.  He  would  occasion- 
ally invite  an  old  friend  to 
take  a  wrestle  with  him 
on  the  lawn,  to  keep  up 
his  skill,  and  perhaps  to  try 
some  new  "knack"  of 
throwing.  In  the  evening 
he  would  sometimes  in- 
dulge his  visitors  by  recit- 
ing the  old  pastoral  of 
"Damon  and  Phyllis,"  or  singing  his  favorite  song  of  "John 
Anderson  my  Joe." 

But  his  greatest  enjoyment  on  such  occasion  was  "  a  crowdie." 
"  Let's  have  a  crowdie  night,"  he  would  say ;  and  forthwith  a 
kettle  of  boiling  water  was  ordered  in,  with  a  basin  of  oatmeal. 
Taking  a  large  bowl,  containing  a  sufficiency  of  hot  water,  and 
placing  it  between  his  knees,  he  poured  in  oatmeal  with  one 
hand,  and  stirred  the  mixture  vigorously  with  the  other.  When 
enough  meal  had  been  added,  and  the  stirring  was  completed,  the 
crowdie  was  made.  It  was  then  supped  with  new  milk,  and  Mr. 
Stephenson  generally  pronounced  it  "  capital !"  It  was  the  diet 
to  which  he  had  been  accustomed  when  a  working-man,  and  all 
the  dainties  with  which  he  had  become  familiar  in  recent  years 


466  VISITS  TO  LONDON.  [PART  II. 

had  not  spoiled  his  simple  tastes.  To  enjoy  crowdie  at  his  years, 
besides,  indicated  that  he  still  possessed  that  quality  on  which  no 
doubt  much  of  his  practical  success  in  life  had  depended — a 
strong  and  healthy  digestion. 

He  would  also  frequently  invite  to  his  house  the  humbler  com- 
panions of  his  early  life,  and  take  pleasure  in  talking  over  old 
times  with  them.  He  never  assumed  any  of  the  bearings  of  the 
great  man  on  such  occasions,  but  treated  his  visitors  with  the 
same  friendliness  and  respect  as  if  they  had  been  his  equals, 
sending  them  away  pleased  with  themselves  and  delighted  with 
him.  At  other  times,  needy  men  who  had  known  him  in  their 
youth  would  knock  at  his  door,  and  they  were  never  refused  ac- 
cess. But  if  he  had  heard  of  any  misconduct  on  their  part,  he 
would  rate  them  soundly.  One  who  knew  him  intimately  in 
private  life  has  seen  him  exhorting  such  backsliders,  and  de- 
nouncing their  misconduct  and  imprudence,  with  the  tears 
streaming  down  his  cheeks.  And  he  would  generally  conclude 
by  opening  his  purse,  and  giving  them  the  help  which  they  need- 
ed "  to  make  a  fresh  start  in  the  world." 

His  life  at  Tapton  during  his  later  years  was  occasionally  di- 
versified by  a  visit  to  London.  His  engineering  business  having 
become  limited,  he  generally  went  there  for  the  purpose  of  visit- 
ing friends,  or  "to  see  what  there  was  fresh  going  on."  He 
found  a  new  race  of  engineers  springing  up  on  all  sides — men 
who  knew  him  not ;  and  his  London  journeys  gradually  ceased 
to  yield  Mm  pleasure.  A  friend  used  to  take  him  to  the  opera, 
but  by  the  end  of  the  first  act  he  was  generally  observed  in  a 
profound  slumber.  Yet  on  one  occasion  he  enjoyed  a  visit  to 
the  Haymarket,  with  a  party  of  friends  on  his  birthday,  to  see  T. 
P.  Cooke  in  "  Black-eyed  Susan" — if  that  can  be  called  enjoy- 
ment which  kept  him  in  a  state  of  tears  during  half  the  perform- 
ance. At  other  times  he  visited  Newcastle,  which  always  gave 
him  great  pleasure.  He  would,  on  such  occasions,  go  out  to  Kil- 
lingworth  and  seek  up  old  friends,  and  if  the  people  whom  he 
knew  were  too  retiring  and  shrunk  into  their  cottages,  he  went 
and  sought  them  there.  Striking  the  floor  with  his  stick,  and 
holding  his  noble  person  upright,  he  would  say,  in  his  own  kind 
way, "  Well,  and  how's  all  here  to-day  2"  To  the  last  he  had  al- 
ways a  warm  heart  for  Newcastle  and  its  neighborhood. 


CHAP.  XIX.]  FZS/r  TO  DRA  YTON  1 T 1  TO  IT 

Sir  Robert  Peel,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  invited  George 
Stephenson  to  his  mansion  at  Drayton,  where  he  was  accustomed 
to  assemble  round  him  men  of  the  highest  distinction  in  art,  sci- 
ence, and  legislation,  during  the  intervals  of  his  Parliamentary 
life.  The  first  invitations  were  respectfully  declined;  but  Sir 
Robert  again  pressing  him  to  come  down  to  Tamworth,  where  he 
would  meet  Buckland,  Follett,  and  others  well  known  to  both,  he 
at  last  consented. 

Stephenson's  strong  powers  of  observation,  together  with  his 
native  humor  and  shrewdness,  imparted  to  his  conversation  at  all 
times  much  vigor  and  originality.  Though  mainly  an  engineer, 
he  was  also  a  profound  thinker  on  many  scientific  questions,  and 
there  was  scarcely  a  subject  of  speculation  or  a  department  of 
recondite  science  on  which  he  had  not  employed  his  faculties  in 
such  a  way  as  to  have  formed  large  and  original  views.  Mr. 
Sopwith,  F.R.S.,  has  informed  us  that  the  conversation  at  Dray- 
ton,  on  one  occasion,  turned  on  the  theory  of  the  formation  of 
coal,  in  the  course  of  which  Stephenson  had  an  animated  discus- 
sion with  Dr.  Buckland.  But  the  result  was,  that  Dr.  Buckland, 
a  much  greater  master  of  tongue-fence,  completely  silenced  him. 
Next  morning,  before  breakfast,  when  he  was  walking  in  the 
grounds  deeply  pondering,  Sir  William  Follett  came  up  and  ask- 
ed what  he  was  thinking  about.  "  Why,  Sir  William,  I  am  think- 
ing over  that  argument  I  had  with  Buckland  last  night.  I  know 
I  am  right,  and  that,  if  I  had  only  the  command  of  words  which 
he  has,  I'd  have  beaten  him."  "  Let  me  know  all  about  it,"  said 
Sir  William,  "  and  I'll  see  what  I  can  do  for  you."  The  two  sat 
down  in  an  arbor,  where  the  astute  lawyer  made  himself  thor- 
oughly acquainted  with  the  points  of  the  case,  entering  into  it 
with  the  zeal  of  an  advocate  about  to  plead  the  interests  of  his 
client.  After  he  had  mastered  the  subject,  Sir  William  said, 
"Now  I  am  ready  for  him."  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  made  ac- 
quainted with  the  plot,  and  adroitly  introduced  the  subject  of  the 
controversy  after  dinner.  The  result  was,  that  in  the  argument 
which  followed,  the  man  of  science  was  overcome  by  the  man  of 
law.  "  And  what  do  you  say,  Mr.  Stephenson  ?"  asked  Sir  Rob- 
ert, laughing.  "  Why,"  said  he, "  I  say  this,  that  of  all  the  powers 
above  and  under  the  earth,  there  seems  to  me  to  be  no  power  so 
great  as  the  gift  of  the  gab." 

Go 


468  THEORY  ABOUT  THE  SUN'S  LIGHT.  [PART  II. 

One  Sunday,  when  the  party  had  just  returned  from  church, 
they  were  standing  together  on  the  terrace  near  the  Hall,  and 
observed  in  the  distance  a  railway  flashing  along,  tossing  behind 
its  long  white  plume  of  steam.  "  Now,  Buckland,"  said  Stephen  - 
son, "  I  have  a  poser  for  you.  Can  you  tell  me  what  is  the  pow- 
er that  is  driving  that  train  2"  "  Well,"  said  the  other, "  I  suppose 
it  is  one  of  your  big  engines."  "  But  what  drives  the  engine  ?" 
"  Oh,  very  likely  a  canny  Newcastle  driver."  "  What  do  you  say 
to  the  light  of  the  sun  ?"  "  How  can  that  be  ?"  asked  the  doctor. 
"  It  is  nothing  else,"  said  the  engineer :  "it  is  light  bottled  up  in 
the  earth  for  tens  of  thousands  of  years — light,  absorbed  by 
plants  and  vegetables,  being  necessary  for  the  condensation  of 
carbon  during  the  process  of  their  growth,  if  it  be  not  carbon  in 
another  form — and  now,  after  being  buried  in  the  earth  for  long 
ages  in  fields  of  coal,  that  latent  light  is  again  brought  forth  and 
liberated,  made  to  work  as  in  that  locomotive,  for  great  human 
purposes."* 

During  the  same  visit  Mr.  Stephenson  one  evening  repeated 
his  experiment  with  blood  drawn  from  the  finger,  submitting  it 
to  the  microscope  in  order  to  show  the  curious  circulation  of  the 
globules.  He  set  the  example  by  pricking  his  own  thumb ;  and 
the  other  guests,  by  turns,  in  like  manner  gave  up  a  small  portion 
of  their  blood  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  comparative 
liveliness  of  their  circulation.  When '  Sir  Robert  Peel's  turn 
came,  Stephenson  said  he  was  curious  to  know  "  how  the  blood 

*  This  was  a  favorite  notion  of  George  Stephenson's,  and  he  held  that  what  pro- 
duced light  and  heat  had  originally  been  light  and  heat.  Mr.  Fearon,  solicitor,  has 
informed  the  author  that  he  accompanied  Stephenson  on  one  of  his  visits  to  Belgium, 
when  it  seemed  to  him  that  the  engineer  did  not  take  much  interest  in  the  towns, 
churches,  or  public  buildings  of  Belgium,  probably  because  he  knew  little  of  history, 
and  they  recalled  no  associations  with  the  past.  One  day  the  party  went  to  see  the 
beautiful  Hotel  de  Ville  at  Brussels,  but  Stephenson  did  not  seem  moved  by  it.  On 
passing  out  of  the  square,  however,  by  the  little  street  which  leads  toward  the  Mon- 
tague de  la  Cour,  his  interest  was  thoroughly  roused  by  the  sight  of  an  immense  fat 
pig  hung  up  in  a  butcher's  shop.  He  immediately  took  out  his  foot-rule,  measured 
the  pig,  and  expressed  a  desire  to  have  some  conversation  with  the  butcher  as  to  how 
it  had  been  fed.  The  butcher  accordingly  waited  upon  them  at  the  hotel,  and  told  all 
he  knew  about  the  feeding  of  the  pig ;  and  then,  says  Mr.  Fearon,  "  George  went  off 
into  his  favorite  theory  of  the  sun's  light,  which  he  said  had  fattened  the  pig ;  for  the 
light  had  gone  into  the  pease,  and  the  pease  had  gone  into  the  fat,  and  the  fat  pig 
was  like  a  field  of  coal  in  this  respect,  that  they  were,  for  the  most  part,  neither  more 
nor  less  than  bottled  sunshine." 


CHAP.  XIX.]    STEPHENSON 'S  LAST  RAILWAY  OPEN/NO.          469 

globules  of  a  great  politician  would  conduct  themselves."  Sir 
Eobert  held  forth  his  finger  for  the  purpose  of  being  pricked ;  but 
once  and  again  he  sensitively  shrunk  back,  and  at  length  the  ex- 
periment, so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  was  abandoned.  Sir  Eobert 
Peel's  sensitiveness  to  pain  was  extreme,  and  yet  he  was  destined, 
a  few  years  after,  to  die  a  death  of  the  most  distressing  agony. 

In  1847,  the  year  before  his  death,  George  Stephenson  was 
again  invited  to  join  a  distinguished  party  at  Dray  ton  Manor,  and 
to  assist  in  the  ceremony  of  formally  opening  the  Trent  Valley 
Railway,  which  had  been  originally  designed  and  laid  out  by 
himself  many  years  before.  The  first  sod  of  the  railway  had 
been  cut  by  the  prime  minister  in  November,  1845,  and  the  for- 
mal opening  took  place  on  the  26th  of  June,  1847,  the  line  hav- 
ing thus  been  constructed  in  less  than  two  years. 

What  a  change  had  come  over  the  spirit  of  the  landed  gentry 
since  the  time  when  George  Stephenson  had  first  projected  a  rail- 
way through  that  district !  Then  they  were  up  in  arms  against 
him,  characterizing  him  as  the  devastator  and  spoiler  of  their  es- 
tates, whereas  now  he  was  hailed  as  one  of  the  greatest  benefac- 
tors of  the  age.  Sir  Eobert  Peel,  the  chief  political  personage  in 
England,  welcomed  him  as  a  guest  and  friend,  and  spoke  of  him 
as  the  chief  among  practical  philosophers.  A  dozen  members  of 
Parliament,  seven  baronets,  with  all  the  landed  magnates  of  the 
district,  assembled  to  celebrate  the  opening  of  the  railway.  The 
clergy  were  there  to  bless  the  enterprise,  and  to  bid  all  hail  to 
railway  progress,  as  "  enabling  them  to  carry  on  with  greater  fa- 
cility those  operations  in  connection  with  religion  which  were 
calculated  to  be  so  beneficial  to  the  country."  The  army,  speak- 
ing through  the  mouth  of  General  A'Court,  acknowledged  the 
vast  importance  of  railways,  as  tending  to  improve  the  military 
defenses  of  the  country.  And  representatives  from  eight  corpo- 
rations were  there  to  acknowledge  the  great  benefits  which  rail- 
ways had  conferred  upon  the  merchants,  tradesmen,  and  working 
classes  of  their  respective  towns  and  cities. 

In  the  spring  of  1848  George  Stephenson  was  invited  to  Whit- 
tington  House,  near  Chesterfield,  the  residence  of  his  friend  and 
f ormer  pupil,  Mr.  Swanwick,  to  meet  the  distinguished  American, 
Emerson.  On  being  introduced  to  each  other  they  did  not  imme- 
diately engage  in  conversation ;  but  presently  Stephenson  jumped 


470  MEETING  WITH  EMERSON.— LAST  ILLNESS.     [PART  II. 

up,  took  Emerson  by  the  collar,  and,  giving  him  one  of  his  friend- 
ly shakes,  asked  how  it  was  that  in  England  we  could  always  tell 
an  American.  This  led  to  an  interesting  conversation,  in  the 
course  of  which  Emerson  said  how  much  he  had  every  where 
been  struck  by  the  haleness  and  comeliness  of  the  English  men 
and  women,  from  which  they  diverged  into  a  discussion  of  the 
influences  which  air,  climate,  moisture,  soil,  and  other  conditions 
exercised  on  the  physical  and  moral  development  of  a  people. 
The  conversation  was  next  directed  to  the  subject  of  electricity, 
on  which  Stephenson  launched  out  enthusiastically,  explaining 
his  views  by  several  simple  and  some  striking  illustrations.  From 
thence  it  gradually  turned  to  the  events  of  his  own  life,  which  he 
related  in  so  graphic  a  manner  as  completely  to  rivet  the  atten- 
tion of  the  American.  Afterward  Emerson  said  "that  it  was 
worth  crossing  the  Atlantic  were  it  only  to  have  seen  Stephenson 
— he  had  such  force  of  character  and  vigor  of  intellect." 

The  rest  of  George  Stephenson's  days  were  spent  quietly  at 
Tapton,  among  his  dogs,  his  rabbits,  and  his  birds.  "When  not 
engaged  about  the  works  connected  with  his  collieries,  he  was  oc- 
cupied in  horticulture  and  farming.  He  continued  proud  of  his 
flowers,  his  fruits,  and  his  crops,  while  the  old  spirit  of  competi- 
tion was  still  strong  within  him.  Although  he  had  for  some 
time  been  in  delicate  health,  and  his  hand  shook  from  nervous 
debility,  he  appeared  to  possess  a  sound  constitution.  Emerson 
had  observed  of  him  that  he  had  the  lives  of  many  men  in  him. 
But  perhaps  the  American  spoke  figuratively,  in  reference  to  his 
vast  stores  of  experience.  It  appeared  that  he  had  never  com- 
pletely recovered  from  the  attack  of  pleurisy  which  seized  him 
during  his  return  from  Spain.  As  late,  however,  as  the  26th  of 
July,  1848,  he  felt  himself  sufficiently  well  to  be  able  to  attend  a 
meeting  of  the  Institute  of  Mechanical  Engineers  at  Birmingham, 
and  to  read  to  the  members  his  paper  "  On  the  Fallacies  of  the 
Rotatory  Engine." 

It  was  his  last  public  appearance.  Shortly  after  his  return  to 
Tapton  he  had  an  attack  of  intermittent  fever,  from  which  he 
seemed  to  be  recovering,  when  a  sudden  effusion  of  blood  from 
the  lungs  carried  him  off,  on  the  12th  of  August,  1848,  in  the 
sixty-seventh  year  of  his  age.  When  all  was  over,  Eobert  wrote 
to  Edmund  Pease,  "  With  deep  pain  I  inform  you,  as  one  of  his 


CHAP.  XIX.]  DEATH  AND  BURIAL.  471 

oldest  friends,  of  the  death  of  my  dear  father  this  morning  at 
12  o'clock,  after  about  ten  days'  illness  from  severe  fever."  Mr. 
Starbuck,  who  was  also  present,  wrote :  "  The  favorable  symp- 
toms of  yesterday  morning  were  toward  evening  followed  by  a 
serious  change  for  the  worse.  This  continued  during  the  night, 
and  early  this  morning  it  became  evident  that  he  was  sinking.  At 
a  few  minutes  before  12  to-day  he  breathed  his  last.  All  that  the 
most  devoted  and  unremitting  care  of  Mrs.  Stephenson*  and  the 
skill  of  medicine  could  accomplish  has  been  done,  but  in  vain." 

George  Stephenson's  remains  were  followed  to  the  grave  by  a 
large  body  of  his  work-people,  by  whom  he  was  greatly  admired 
and  beloved.  They  remembered  him  as  a  kind  master,  who  was 
ever  ready  actively  to  promote  all  measures  for  their  moral,  phys- 
ical, and  mental  improvement.  The  inhabitants  of  Chesterfield 
evinced  their  respect  for  the  deceased  by  suspending  business, 
closing  their  shops,  and  joining  in  the  funeral  procession,  which 
was  headed  by  the  corporation  of  the  town.  Many  of  the  sur- 
rounding gentry  also  attended.  The  body  was  interred  in  Trin- 
ity Church,  Chesterfield,  where  a  simple  tablet  marks  the  great 
engineer's  last  resting-place. 


*  The  second  Mrs.  Stephenson  having  died  in  1845,  George  married  a  third  tin, 
in  1848,  about  six  months  before  his  death.  The  third  Mrs.  Stephenson  was  an  it 
teUigent  and  respectable  lady,  who  had  for  some  years  officiated  as  his  housekeeper. 


472  MEMORIAL  STATUES.  PART  II. 

The  statue  of  George  Stephenson,  which  the  Liverpool  and 
Manchester  and  Grand  Junction  Companies  had  commissioned, 
was  on  its  way  to  England  when  his  death  occurred ;  and  it  served 
for  a  monument,  though  his  best  monument  will  always  be  his 
works.  The  statue  referred  to  was  placed  in  St.  George's  Hall, 
Liverpool.  A  full-length  statue  of  him,  by  Bailey,  was  also  erect- 
ed, a  few  years  later,  in  the  noble  vestibule  of  the  London  and 
Northwestern  Station,  in  Euston  Square.  A  subscription  for  the 
purpose  was  set  on  foot  by  the  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers, 
of  which  he  had  been  the  founder  and  president,  A  few  adver- 
tisements were  inserted  in  the  newspapers,  inviting  subscriptions ; 
and  it  is  a  notable  fact  that  the  voluntary  offerings  included  an 
average  of  two  shillings  each  from  3150  working-men,  who  em- 
braced this  opportunity  of  doing  honor  to  their  distinguished  fel- 
low-workman. 

But  the  finest  and  most  appropriate  statue  to  the  memory  of 
George  Stephenson  is  that  which  was  erected  in  1862,  after  the 
design  of  John  Lough,  at  Newcastle-upon-Tyne.  It  is  in  the  im- 
mediate neighborhood  of  the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Institute, 
to  which  both  George  and  his  son  Robert  were  so  much  indebted 
in  their  early  years;  close  to  the  great  Stephenson  locomotive 
f oundery  established  by  the  shrewdness  of  the  father ;  and  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  High-Level  Bridge,  one  of  the  grandest  products 
of  the  genius  of  the  son.  The  head  of  Stephenson,  as  expressed 
in  this  noble  work,  is  massive,  characteristic,  and  faithful ;  and 
the  attitude  of  the  figure  is  simple,  yet  manly  and  energetic.  It 
stands  on  a  pedestal,  at  the  respective  corners  of  which  are  sculpt- 
ured the  recumbent  figures  of  a  pitman,  a  mechanic,  an  engine- 
driver,  and  a  plate-layer.  The  statue  appropriately  stands  in  a 
very  thoroughfare  of  working-men,  thousands  of  whom  see  it 
daily  as  they  pass  to  and  from  their  work ;  and  we  can  imagine 
them,  as  they  look  up  to  Stephenson's  manly  figure,  applying  to  it 
the  words  addressed  by  Robert  Nicoll  to  Robert  Burns,  with  per- 
haps still  greater  appropriateness : 

"  Before  the  proudest  of  the  earth 

We  stand,  with  an  uplifted  brow ; 
Like  us,  thou  wast  a  toiling  man — 
And  we  are  noble,  now !" 

The  portrait  prefixed  to  this  volume  gives  a  good  indication  of 


CHAP.  XIX.]  PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS.  473 

George  Stephenson's  shrewd,  kind,  honest,  manly  face.  His  fair, 
clear  countenance  was  ruddy,  and  seemingly  glowed  with  health. 
The  forehead  was  large  and  high,  projecting  over  the  eyes,  and 
there  was  that  massive  breadth  across  the  lower  part  which  is 
usually  observed  in  men  of  eminent  constructive  skill.  The 
mouth  was  firmly  marked,  and  shrewdness  and  humor  lurked 
there  as  well  as  in  the  keen  gray  eye.  His  frame  was  compact, 
well  knit,  and  rather  spare.  His  hair  became  gray  at  an  early 
age,  and  toward  the  close  of  his  life  it  was  of  a  pure  silky  white- 
ness. He  dressed  neatly  in  black,  wearing  a  white  neckcloth ; 
and  his  face,  his  person,  and  his  deportment  at  once  arrested  at- 
tention, and  marked  the  Gentleman. 


TABLET  IN  TBtSITT  CHUBCD,  CBESTEBFtKLD. 


VICTORIA  BEIDGE,  MONTREAL. 

CHAPTER  XX. 

ROBERT  STEPHENSON'S  VICTORIA  BRIDGE,  LOWER  CANADA — ILLNESS 
AND  DEATH. 

GEORGE  STEPHENSON  bequeathed  to  his  son  his  valuable  collier- 
ies, his  share  in  the  engine  manufactory  at  Newcastle,  and  his 
large  accumulation  of  savings,  which,  together  with  the  fortune 
he  had  himself  amassed  by  railway  work,  gave  Robert  the  posi- 
tion of  an  engineer  millionaire — the  first  of  his  order.  He  con- 
tinued, however,  to  live  in  a  quiet  style ;  and  although  he  bought 
occasional  pictures  and  statues,  and  indulged  in  the  luxury  of  a 
yacht,  he  did  not  live  up  to  his  income,  which  went  on  accumu- 
lating until  his  death. 

There  was  no  longer  the  necessity  for  applying  himself  to  the 
laborious  business  of  a  Parliamentary  engineer,  in  which  he  had 
now  been  occupied  for  some  fifteen  years.  Shortly  after  his  fa- 
ther's death,  Edward  Pease  recommended  him  to  give  up  the 
more  harassing  work  of  his  profession ;  and  his  reply  (15th  of 
June,  1850)  was  as  follows : 

"The  suggestion  which  your  kind  note  contains  is  quite  in  ac- 
cordance with  my  own  feelings  and  intentions  respecting  retire- 
ment ;  but  I  find  it  a  very  difficult  matter  to  bring  to  a  close  so 
complicated  a  connection  in  business  as  that  which  has  been  estab- 
lished by  twenty-five  years  of  active  and  arduous  professional  duty. 
Comparative  retirement  is,  however,  my  intention,  and  I  trust  that 
your  prayer  for  the  Divine  blessing  to  grant  me  happiness  and  quiet 
comfort  will  be  fulfilled.  I  can  not  but  feel  deeply  grateful  to  the 
Great  Disposer  of  events  for  the  success  which  has  hitherto  attend- 


CHAP.  XX.]  EGYPTIAN  BRIDGES.— CANADIAN  RAILWAYS.      475 

ed  my  exertions  in  life,  and  I  trust  that  the  future  will  also  be 
marked  by  a  continuance  of  His  mercies." 

Although  Kobert  Stephenson,  in  conformity  with  this  express- 
ed intention,  for  the  most  part  declined  to  undertake  new  busi- 
ness, he  did  not  altogether  lay  aside  his  harness,  and  he  lived  to 
repeat  his  tubular  bridges  both  in  Egypt  and  Canada.  The  suc- 
cess of  the  tubular  system,  as  adopted  at  Menai  and  Con  way,  was 
such  as  to  recommend  it  for  adoption  wherever  great  span  was 
required,  and  the  peculiar  circumstances  connected  with  the  nav- 
igation of  the  Nile  and  the  St.  Lawrence  may  be  said  to  have 
compelled  its  adoption  in  carrying  railways  across  both  those 
rivers. 

Two  tubular  bridges  were  built  after  our  engineer's  designs 
across  the  Nile,  near  Damietta,  in  Lower  Egypt.  That  near  Ben- 
ha  contains  eight  spans  or  openings  of  80  feet  each,  and  two  cen- 
tre spans,  formed  by  one  of  the  largest  swing-bridges  ever  con- 
structed, the  total  length  of  the  swing-beam  being  157  feet,  a 
clear  waterway  of  60  feet  being  provided  on  either  side  of  the 
centre  pier.  The  only  novelty  in  these  bridges  consisted  in  the 
road  being  carried  upon  the  tubes  instead  of  within  them,  their 
erection  being  carried  out  in  the  usual  manner  by  means  of 
workmen,  materials,  and  plant  sent  out  from  England.  The  Tu- 
bular Bridge  constructed  in  Canada,  after  Mr.  Stephenson's  de- 
signs, was  of  a  much  more  important  character,  and  deserves  a 
fuller  description. 

The  important  uses  of  railways  had  been  recognized  at  an  ear- 
ly period  by  the  inhabitants  of  North  America,  and  in  the  course 
of  about  thirty  years  more  than  25,000  miles  of  railway,  mostly 
single,  were  constructed  in  the  United  States  alone.  The  Cana- 
dians were  more  deliberate  in  their  proceedings,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  year  1840  that  their  first  railway,  14  miles  in  length, 
was  constructed  between  Laprairie  and  St.  John's,  for  the  purpose 
of  connecting  Lake  Champlain  with  the  Kiver  St.  Lawrence. 
From  this  date,  however,  new  lines  were  rapidly  projected ;  more 
particularly  the  Great  Western  of  Canada,  and  the  Atlantic  and 
St.  Lawrence  (now  forming  part  of  the  Grand  Trunk),  until  in 
the  course  of  a  few  years  Canada  had  a  length  of  nearly  2000 
miles  of  railway  open  or  in  course  of  construction,  intersecting 
the  provinces  almost  in  a  continuous  line  from  Kiviere  du  Loup, 


4T6  PROPOSED  BRIDGE  AT  MONTREAL.  [PART II. 

near  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  to  Port  Sarnia,  on  the  shores 
of  Lake  Huron. 

But  there  still  remained  one  most  important  and  essential  link 
to  connect  the  lines  on  the  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  with  those 
on  the  north,  and  at  the  same  time  place  the  city  of  Montreal  in 
direct  railway  connection  with  the  western  parts  of  Canada.  The 
completion  of  this  link  was  also  necessary  in  order  to  maintain 
the  commercial  communication  of  Canada  with  the  rest  of  the 
world  during  five  months  in  every  year ;  for,  though  the  St.  Law- 
rence in  summer  affords  a  splendid  outlet  to  the  ocean — toward 
which  the  commerce  of  the  colony  naturally  tends — the  frost  in 
winter  is  so  severe,  that  during  that  season  Canada  is  completely 
frozen  in,  and  the  navigation  hermetically  closed  by  the  ice. 

The  Grand  Trunk  Railway  was  designed  to  furnish  a  line  of 
land  communication  along  the  great  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
at  all  seasons,  following  the  course  of  the  river,  and  connecting 
the  principal  towns  of  the  colony.  But  stopping  short  on  the 
north  shore,  nearly  opposite  Montreal,  with  which  it  was  connect- 
ed by  a  dangerous  and  often  impracticable  ferry,  it  was  felt  that, 
until  the  St.  Lawrence  was  bridged  by  a  railway,  the  Canadian 
system  of  railways  was  manifestly  incomplete.  But  how  to  bridge 
this  wide  and  rapid  river !  Never  before,  perhaps,  was  a  problem 
of  such  difficulty  proposed  for  solution  by  an  engineer.  Opposite 
Montreal,  the  St.  Lawrence  is  about  two  miles  wide,  running  at 
the  rate  of  about  ten  miles  an  hour ;  and  at  the  close  of  each  win- 
ter it  carries  down  the  ice  of  2000  square  miles  of  lakes  and  riv- 
ers, with  their  numerous  tributaries. 

As  early  as  the  year  1846,  the  construction  of  a  bridge  at  Mont- 
real was  strongly  advocated  by  the  local  press  as  the  only  means 
of  connecting  that  city  with  the  projected  Atlantic  and  St.  Law- 
rence Railway.  But  the  difficulties  of  executing  such  a  work 
seemed  almost  insurmountable  to  those  best  acquainted  with  the 
locality.  The  greatest  difficulty  was  apprehended  from  the  tre- 
mendous shoving  and  pressure  of  the  ice  at  the  break-up  of  win- 
ter. At  such  times,  opposite  Montreal,  the  whole  river  is  packed 
with  huge  blocks  of  ice,  and  it  is  often  seen  piled  up  to  a  height 
of  from  40  to  50  feet  along  the  banks,  placing  the  surrounding 
country  under  water,  and  occasionally  doing  severe  damage  to 
the  massive  stone  buildings  erected  along  the  noble  river  front  of 
the  city. 


CHAP.  XX.]     ROBERT  STEPHENSON  APPOINTED  ENGINEER.    477 

But  no  other  expedient  presented  itself  but  a  bridge,  and  a 
survey  was  made  accordingly  at  the  instance  of  the  Hon.  John 
Young,  one  of  the  directors  of  the  railway.  A  period  of  colonial 
depression  having  shortly  after  occurred,  the  project  slept  for  a 
time,  and  it  was  not  until  six  years  later,  in  1852,  when  the  Grand 
Trunk  Railway  was  under  construction,  that  the  subject  was  again 
brought  under  discussion.  In  that  year,  Mr.  Alexander  M.  Ross, 
who  had  superintended  the  construction  of  Robert  Stephenson's 
tubular  bridge  at  Conway,  visited  Canada,  and  inspected  the  site 
of  the  proposed  structure,  when  he  at  once  formed  the  opinion 
that  a  tubular  bridge  carrying  a  railway  was  the  most  suitable 
means  of  crossing  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  connecting  Montreal  with 
the  lines  on  the  north  of  the  river. 

The  directors  felt  that  such  a  work  would  necessarily  be  of  a 
most  formidable  and  difficult  character,  and  before  coming  to  any 
conclusion  they  determined  to  call  to  their  assistance  Mr.  Robert 
Stephenson,  as  the  engineer  most  competent  to  advise  them  in  the 
matter.  Mr.  Stephenson  considered  the  subject  of  so  much  inter- 
est and  importance  that,  in  the  summer  of  1853,  he  proceeded  to 
Canada  to  inquire  as  to  all  the  facts,  and  examine  carefully  the 
site  of  the  proposed  work.  He  then  formed  the  opinion  that  a 
tubular  bridge  across  the  river  was  not  only  practicable,  but  by 
far  the  most  suitable  for  the  purpose  intended,  and  early  in  the 
following  year  he  sent  an  elaborate  report  on  the  whole  subject 
to  the  directors  of  the  railway.  The  result  was  the  adoption  of 
his  recommendation  and  the  erection  of  the  Victoria  Bridge,  of 
which  Robert  Stephenson  was  the  designer  and  engineer,  and 
Mr.  A.  M.  Ross  the  joint  and  resident  engineer  in  directly  super- 
intending the  execution  of  the  undertaking.  The  details  of  the 
plans  were  principally  worked  out  in  Mr.  Stephenson's  office  in 
London,  under  the  superintendence  of  his  cousin,  Mr.  George  Rob- 
ert Stephenson,  while  the  iron-work  was  for  the  most  part  con- 
structed at  the  Canada  Works,  Liverpool,  from  whence  it  was 
shipped,  ready  for  being  fixed  in  position  on  the  spot. 

The  Victoria  Bridge  is,  without  exception,  the  greatest  work 
of  its  kind  in  the  world.  For  gigantic  proportions,  and  vast 
length  and  strength,  there  is  nothing  to  compare  with  it  in  an- 
cient or  modern  times.  The  entire  bridge,  with  its  approaches,  is 
only  about  sixty  yards  short  of  two  miles  in  length,  being  five 


478 


THE  VICTORIA  BRIDGE. 


[PART  II. 


times  longer  than  the  Britannia  Bridge  across  the  Menai  Straits, 
seven  and  a  half  times  longer  than  Waterloo  Bridge,  and  more 
than  ten  times  longer  than  Chelsea  Bridge.  The  two-mile  tube 
across  the  St.  Lawrence  rests  on  twenty-four  piers,  which,  with 
the  abutments,  leave  twenty-five  spaces  or  spans  for  the  several 
parts  of  the  tube.  Twenty-four  of  these  spans  are  242  feet  wide ; 
the  centre  span — itself  a  huge  bridge — being  330  feet.  The  road 
is  carried  within  the  tube  60  feet  above  the  level  of  the  river,  so 
as  not  to  interfere  with  its  navigation. 

As  one  of  the  principal  difficulties  apprehended  in  the  erection 
of  the  bridge  was  that  arising  from  the  tremendous  "  shoving" 


1 


SIDE  ELEVATION   OP  PIEB. 


and  ramming  of  the  ice  at  the  break-up  of  winter,  the  plans  were 
carefully  designed  so  as  to  avert  all  danger  from  this  cause. 
Hence  the  peculiarity  in  the  form  of  the  piers,  which,  though 
greatly  increasing  their  strength  for  the  purpose  intended,  must 
be  admitted  to  detract  considerably  from  the  symmetry  of  the 
structure  as  a  whole.  The  western  face  of  each  pier — that  is,  the 
up-river  side — has  a  large  wedge-shaped  cutwater  of  stone-work, 
presenting  an  inclined  plane  toward  the  current,  for  the  purpose 
of  arresting  and  breaking  up  the  ice-blocks,  and  thereby  prevent- 
ing them  from  piling  up  and  damaging  the  tube  carrying  the 
railway.  The  piers  are  of  immense  strength.  Those  close  to  the 


CHAP.  XX.]    FOUNDATIONS  AND  CONSTRUCTION  OF  PIERS.    479 

abutments  contain  about  6000  tons  of  masonry  each,  while  those 
which  support  the  great  centre  tube  contain  about  12,000  tons. 
The  former  are  15  feet  wide,  and  the  latter  18.  Scarcely  a  block 
of  stone  used  in  the  piers  is  less  than  seven  tons  in  weight,  while 
many  of  those  opposed  to  the  force  of  the  breaking-up  ice  weigh 
fully  ten  tons. 

As  might  naturally  be  expected,  the  getting  in  of  the  founda- 
tions of  these  enormous  piers  in  so  wide  and  rapid  a  river  was 
attended  with  many  difficulties.  To  give  an  idea  of  the  water- 
power  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  when  the 
river  comes  down  in  its  greatest  might,  large  stone  boulders 
weighing  upward  of  a  ton  are  rolled  along  by  the  sheer  force  of 
the  current.  The  depth  of  the  river,  however,  was  not  so  great 
as  might  be  supposed,  varying  from  only  five  to  fifteen  feet  dur- 
ing summer,  when  the  foundation- work  was  carried  on. 

The  method  first  employed  to  get  in  the  foundations  was  by 
means  of  dams  or  caissons,  which  were  constructed  on  shore, 
floated  into  position,  and  scuttled  over  the  places  at  which  the 
foundations  were  to  be  laid,  thus  at  once  forming  a  nucleus  from 
which  the  dams  could  be  constructed.  The  first  of  such  dams 
was  floated,  got  into  position,  scuttled,  and  sunk,  and  the  piling 
fairly  begun,  on  the  19th  of  June,  1854.  By  the  15th  of  the  fol- 
lowing month  the  sheet-piling  and  puddling  was  finished,  when 
the  pumping  of  the  water  out  of  the  inclosed  space  by  steam- 
power  was  proceeded  with,  and  in  a  few  hours  the  bed  of  the 
river  was  laid  almost  dry,  the  toe  of  every  pile  being  distinctly 
visible.  By  the  22d  the  first  stone  of  the  pier  was  laid,  and  on 
the  14th  of  August  the  masonry  was  above  water-level. 

The  getting  in  of  the  foundations  of  the  other  piers  was  pro- 
ceeded with  in  like  manner,  though  frequently  interrupted  by 
storms,  inundations,  and  collisions  of  timber-rafts,  which  occasion- 
ally carried  away  the  moorings  of  the  dams.  Considerable  diffi- 
culty was  in  some  places  experienced  from  the  huge  boulder- 
stones  lying  in  the  bed  of  the  river,  to  remove  which  sometimes 
cost  the  divers  several  months  of  hard  labor.  In  getting  in  the 
foundations  of  the  later  piers,  the  method  first  employed  of  sink- 
ing the  floating  caissons  in  position  was  abandoned,  and  the  dams 
were  constructed  of  "  crib-work,"*  which  was  found  more  con- 

*  The  dams  of  "crib-work"  were  formed  by  laying  flattened  pine  logs  along  the 


4:80 


ERECTION  OF  THE  TUBES. 


]PARTlI. 


venient,  and  less  liable  to  interruption  by  accident  from  collision 
or  otherwise. 

By  the  spring  of  1857  a  sufficient  number  of  piers  had  been 
finished  to  enable  the  erection  of  the  tubes  to  be  proceeded  with. 
The  operations  connected  with  this  portion  of  the  work  were  also 
of  a  novel  character.  Instead  of  floating  the  tubes  between  the 
piers  and  raising  them  into  position  by  hydraulic  power,  as  at 
Conway  and  Menai,  which  the  rapid  current  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
would  not  permit,  the  tubes  were  erected  in  situ  on  a  staging 
prepared  for  the  purpose,  as  shown  in  the  following  engra^7ing. 

Floating  scows,  each  60  feet  by  20,  were  moored  in  position, 


IKW  FBOM  ABOVE  THE  SOUTH  ABUTMENT. 


whole  outer  edge  of  the  work,  and  at  intervals  of  from  5  to  10  feet  parallel  therewith 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  breadth,  connected  with  transverse  timbers  firmly  tree- 
nailed  and  notched  into  them.  When  one  course  was  formed,  another  was  laid  upon 
and  firmly  treenailed  to  it.  After  two  or  three  courses  were  laid,  transverse  timbers 
were  placed  over  them  close  together,  so  as  to  form  a  flooring,  on  which  stone  was 
placed  to  suit  the  crib  as  the  work  progressed.  When  the  under  side  of  the  crib 
touched  the  bottom,  it  was  carefully  filled  with  loose  stones  and  clay  puddle  to  the 
water  level.  The  process  of  puddling  and  pumping  out  the  water,  and  building  up  the 
pier  within  the  dam  thus  formed,  then  proceeded  in  the  usual  manner.  In  some 
cases  a  powerful  steam  dredge  was  employed  to  clear  out  the  puddle-chambers. 


CHAP.  XX.]  BREAKING  UP  OF  THE  ICE.  481 

and  kept  in  their  place  by  piles  sliding  in  grooves.  These  piles, 
when  firmly  fixed  in  the  bed  of  the  river,  were  bolted  to  the  sides 
of  the  scows,  and  the  tops  were  leveled  to  receive  the  sills  upon 
which  the  framing  carrying  the  truss  and  platform  was  erected. 
Timbers  were  laid  on  the  lower  chords  of  the  truss,  forming  a 
platform  24  feet  wide,  closely  planked  with  deals.  The  upper 
chords  carried  rails,  along  which  moved  the  "  travelers"  used  in 
erecting  the  tubes.  The  plates  forming  the  bottom  of  each  tube 
having  been  accurately  laid  and  riveted,  and  adjusted  to  level 
and  centre  by  oak  wedges,  the  erection  of  the  sides  was  next  pro- 
ceeded with,  extending  outward  from  the  centre  on  either  side, 
this  work  being  closely  followed  by  the  plating  of  the  top.  Each 
tube  between  the  respective  pairs  of  piers  was  in  the  first  place 
erected  separate  and  independent  of  its  adjoining  tubes ;  but  aft- 
er completion,  the  tubes  were  joined  in  pairs  and  firmly  bolted  to 
the  masonry  over  wliich  they  were  united,  their  outer  ends  being 
placed  upon  rollers  so  arranged  on  the  adjoining  piers  that  they 
might  expand  or  contract  according  to  variations  of  temperature. 
The  work  continued  to  make  satisfactory  progress  down  to 
the  spring  of  1858,  by  which  time  fourteen  out  of  the  twenty- 
four  piers  were  finished,  together  with  the  formidable  abutments 
and  approaches  to  the  bridge.  Considerable  apprehensions  were 
entertained  as  to  the  security  of  the  piers  and  the  unfinished  parts 
of  the  work  at  the  usual  breaking-up  of  the  ice.  We  take  the 
following  account  from  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  Ross  to  Mr.  Ste- 
phenson  descriptive  of  the  scene. 

"  On  the  29th  of  March,  the  ice  above  Montreal  began  to  show 
signs  of  weakness,  but  it  was  not  until  the  31st  that  a  general  move- 
ment became  observable,  which  continued  for  an  hour,  when  it  sud- 
denly stopped,  and  the  water  rose  rapidly.  On  the  following  day, 
at  noon,  a  grand  movement  commenced ;  the  waters  rose  about  four 
feet  in  two  minutes,  up  to  a  level  with  many  of  the  Montreal  streets. 
The  fields  of  ice  at  the  same  time  were  suddenly  elevated  to  an  in- 
credible height ;  and  so  overwhelming  were  they  in  appearance, 
that  crowds  of  the  townspeople,  who  had  assembled  on  the  quay  to 
watch  the  progress  of  the  flood,  ran  for  their  lives.  This  movement 
lasted  about  twenty  minutes,  during  which  the  jammed  ice  destroy- 
ed several  portions  of  the  quay  wall,  grinding  the  hardest  blocks  to 
atoms.  The  embanked  approaches  to  the  Victoria  Bridge  had  tre- 


482  OPERATIONS  IN  WINTER.  [PART  II. 

mendous  forces  to  resist.  In  the  full  channel  of  the  stream,  the  ice 
in  its  passage  between  the  piers  was  broken  up  by  the  force  of  the 
blow  immediately  on  its  coming  in  contact  with  the  cutwaters. 
Sometimes  thick  sheets  of  ice  were  seen  to  rise  up  and  rear  on  end 
against  the  piers,  but  by  the  force  of  the  current  they  were  speedily 
made  to  roll  over  into  the  stream,  and  in  a  moment  after  were  out 
of  sight.  For  the  two  next  days  the  river  was  still  high,  until  on 
the  4th  of  April  the  waters  seemed  suddenly  to  give  way,  and  by 
the  following  day  the  river  was  flowing  clear  and  smooth  as  a  mill- 
pond,  nothing  of  winter  remaining  except  the  masses  of  bordage  ice 
which  were  strewn  along  the  shores  of  the  stream.  On  examina- 
tion of  the  piers  of  the  bridge,  it  was  found  that  they  had  admira- 
bly resisted  the  tremendous  pressure ;  and  though  the  timber  "  crib- 
work"  erected  to  facilitate  the  placing  of  floating  pontoons  to  form 
the  dams  was  found  considerably  disturbed  and  in  some  places 
seriously  damaged,  the  piers,  with  the  exception  of  one  or  two 
heavy  stone  blocks,  which  were  still  unfinished,  escaped  uninjured. 
One  block  of  many  tons'  weight  was  carried  to  a  considerable  dis- 
tance, and  must  have  been  torn  out  of  its  place  by  sheer  force,  as 
several  of  the  broken  fragments  were  found  left  in  the  pier." 

Toward  the  end  of  "January,  1859,  the  plating  of  the  bottom  of 
the  great  central  tube  was  begun.  The  execution  of  this  part  of 
the  undertaking  was  of  a  very  formidable  and  difficult  character. 
The  gangs  of  men  employed  upon  it  were  required  to  work  night 
and  day,  though  the  season  was  mid- winter,  as  it  was  of  great  im- 
portance to  the  navigation  that  the  staging  should  be  removed  by 
the  time  that  the  ice  broke  up  and  the  river  became  open.  The 
night  gangs  were  lighted  at  their  work  by  wood-fires  filling  huge 
braziers,  the  bright  glow  of  which  illumined  the  vast  snow-cover- 
ed ice-field  in  the  midst  of  which  they  worked  at  so  lofty  an  ele- 
vation; and  the  sight  as  well  as  the  sounds  of  the  hammering 
and  riveting,  the  puffing  of  the  steam-engines,  and  the  various  op- 
erations thus  carried  on,  presented  a  scene  the  like  of  which  has 
rarely  been  witnessed.  The  work  was  not  conducted  without 
considerable  risk  to  the  men,  arising  from  the  intense  cold.  The 
temperature  was  often  20°  below  zero,  and  notwithstanding  that 
they  all  worked  in  thick  gloves,  and  that  care  was  taken  to  pro- 
tect every  exposed  part,  many  of  them  were  severely  frostbitten. 
Sometimes,  when  thick  mist  rose  from  the  river,  they  would  be- 
come covered  with  icicles,  and  be  driven  from  their  work. 


CUAP.  XX.]         ERECTION  OF  THE  CENTRAL  TUBE. 


483 


Notwithstanding  these  difficulties,  the  laying  of  the  great  cen- 
tral tube  made  steady  progress.  By  the  17th  of  February  the 
first  pair  of  side-plates  was  erected ;  on  the  28th,  the  bottom  was 
riveted  and  completed ;  180  feet  of  the  sides  was  also  in  place, 


KBECTION   OF  M 


and  100  feet  of  the  top  was  plated ;  and  on  the  21st  of  March 
the  whole  of  the  plating  was  finished.    A  few  days  later  the 
wedges  were  knocked  away,  and  the  tube  hung  suspended 
tween  the  adjoining  piers.    On  the  18th  of  May  following  the 
HH 


4:84:  ROBERT  STEPHENSON1  S  LATER  YEARS.         [PART  II. 

staging  was  all  cleared  away,  with  the  moored  scows  and  the 
crib-work,  and  the  centre  span  of  the  bridge  was  again  clear  for 
the  navigation  of  the  river. 

The  first  stone  of  the  bridge  was  laid  on  the  22d  of  July,  1854. 
The  works  continued  in  progress  for  a  period  of  five  and  a  half 
years,  until  the  17th  of  December,  1859,  when  the  first  train  pass- 
ed over  the  bridge ;  and  on  the  25th  of  August,  1860,  it  was 
formally  opened  for  traffic  by  the  Prince  of  Wales.  It  was  the 
greatest  of  Robert  Stephenson's  bridges,  and  worthy  of  being  the 
crowning  and  closing  work  of  his  life.  But  he  was  not  destined 
to  see  its  completion.  Two  months  before  the  bridge  was  finish- 
ed he  had  passed  from  the  scene  of  all  his  labors. 

We  have  little  to  add  as  to  the  closing  events  in  Robert  Ste- 
phenson's life.  Retired  in  a  great  measure  from  the  business  of 
an  engineer,  he  occupied  himself  for  the  most  part  in  society,  in 
yachting,  and  in  attending  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  Clubs. 
It  was  in  the  year  1847  that  he  entered  the  House  of  Commons 
as  member  for  Whitby ;  but  he  does  not  seem  to  have  been  very 
regular  in  his  attendance,  and  only  appeared  on  divisions  when 
there  was  a  "  whip"  of  the  party  to  which  he  belonged.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Sewage  and  Sanitary  Commissions,  and  of  the 
Commission  which  sat  on  Westminster  Bridge.  He  very  seldom 
addressed  the  House,  and  then  only  on  matters  relating  to  engi- 
neering. The  last  occasions  on  which  he  spoke  were  on  the  Suez 
Canal*  and  the  cleansing  of  the  Serpentine. 

*  Mr.  Stephenson  entertained  a  very  strong  opinion  as  to  the  inexpediency  of  mak- 
ing this  canal,  and  the  impracticability  of  keeping  it  open  except  at  an  enormous  ex- 
pense. Of  course  it  was  possible  to  make  the  canal  provided  there  was  money  enough 
raised  for  the  purpose.  But,  even  if  made,  he  held  that  it  would  not  long  be 
used,  for  there  would  not  be  traffic  enough  to  pay  working  expenses.  In  1846,  Mr. 
Stephenson  carefully  examined  the  country  along  the  line  of  the  proposed  canal,  from 
Tineh  on  the  Mediterranean,  to  Suez  on  the  Red  Sea,  in  company  with  the  agents  of 
M.  Talabot,  a  French  engineer,  and  M.  de  Negrelli,  an  Austrian  engineer.  They  as- 
certained that  there  was  no  difference  of  level  between  the  two  seas,  and  that  conse- 
quently a  canal  capable  of  being  scoured  by  the  waters  of  either  was  impracticable. 
On  the  occasion  of  Captain  Pirn's  reading  a  paper  on  the  subject  of  the  revived  proj- 
ect of  the  canal  before  the  Geographical  Society  on  the  1 1th  of  April,  1859,  Mr.  Ste- 
phenson took  part  in  the  discussion  which  followed.  He  held  that  any  harbor  con- 
structed at  Port  Said,  however  far  it  might  be  extended  into  the  sea,  would  only  act 
as  a  mud-trap,  and  that  it  would  be  impracticable  to  keep  such  a  port  open.  Mr. 
George  Rennie  had  compared  the  proposed  breakwater  at  Pelusium  with  the  break- 


CHAP.  XX.]  FOREIGN  SER  VICES. 


4*0 


Besides  constructing  the  railway  between  Alexandria  and  Cairo, 
he  was  consulted,  like  his  father,  by  the  King  of  Belgium  as  to 
the  railways  of  that  country;  and  he  was  made  Knight  of  the 
Order  of  Leopold  because  of  the  improvements  which  he  liad 
made  in  locomotive  engines,  so  much  to  the  advantage  of  the 
Belgian  system  of  inland  transit.  He  was  consulted  by  the  King 
of  Sweden  as  to  the  railway  between  Christiana  and  Lake  Miosen, 
and  in  consideration  of  his  services  was  decorated  with  the  Grand 
Cross  of  the  Order  of  St.  Olaf.  He  also  visited  Switzerland, 
Piedmont,  and  Denmark,  to  advise  as  to  the  system  of  railway 
communication  best  suited  for  those  countries.  At  the  Paris  Ex- 
hibition of  1855  the  Emperor  of  France  decorated  him  with  the 
Legion  of  Honor  in  consideration  of  his  public  services ;  and  at 
home  the  University  of  Oxford  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Civil  Laws. 
In  1855  he  was  elected  President  of  the  Institute  of  Civil  Engi- 
neers, which  office  he  held  with  honor  and  filled  with  distinguish- 
ed ability  for  two  years,  giving  place  to  his  friend  Mr.  Locke  at 
the  end  of  1857. 

Mr.  Stephenson  was  frequently  called  upon  to  act  as  arbitrator 

water  at  Portland,  on  which  Mr.  Stephenson  observed,  "Why,  at  Portland, the  stones 
are  carried  out  from  the  shore  and  thrown  into  the  sea,  but  at  Pelusium  there  is  no 
solid  shore,  and  all  the  stones  must  be  brought  100  miles.  Can  there  be  any  com- 
parison between  a  breakwater  at  Portland  and  one  in  the  Mediterranean  on  a  lee- 
shore,  where  there  is  no  stone  and  no  foundation  whatever  ?  It  is  only  the  silt  of  the 
Kile.  The  Nile  brings  down  millions  of  tons  of  mud  yearly,  and  hence  the  Delta 
formed  at  its  mouth.  The  moment  you  construct  a  harbor  at  Port  Said  and  project 
piers  into  the  sea,  you  immediately  arrest  the  course  of  the  mud,  and  will  never  be 
able  to  keep  the  port  open.  It  would  be  the  most  extraordinary  thing  in  the  world 
to  project  two  jetties  into  an  open  sea  on  a  lee-shore,  which  has  for  almost  three 
months  in  the  year  a  northeast  wind  blowing  upon  it.  There  is  no  seaman,  except  in 
fair  weather,  who  would  venture  to  approach  such  a  place.  To  render  it  at  all  ac- 
cessible and  safe,  there  must  be  a  harbor  of  refuge  made,  and  we  know  from  experi- 
ence in  our  own  country  what  a  large  question  that  would  open  up.  But  even  sup- 
pose such  a  harbor  to  be  made.  The  current  carries  the  mud  of  the  Nile  in  an  east- 
erly direction  ;  and  if  you  provide  a  harbor  of  refuge,  which  means  a  quiescent  har- 
bor, it  will  act  merely  as  a  gigantic  mud-trap.  I  believe  it  to  be  nearly  if  not  abso- 
lutely true,  that  there  is  no  large  harbor  in  the  world  maintained  on  the  delta  of  a 
large  river.  Any  such  harbor  would  be  silted  up  in  a  few  years.  And  whoever  has 
traveled  over  the  district  between  Port  Said  and  Suez,  and  seen  the  moving  sands, 
must  see  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  dredge,  not  only  that  harbor,  but  the  canal  it- 
self." Mr.  Stephenson 's  conclusion  accordingly  was  that  the  scheme  was  impracti- 
cable, that  it  would  not  justify  the  expenditure  necessary  to  complete  it,  and  that,  if 
ever  executed,  it  would  prove  a  commercial  failure. 


486  ROBERT  STEPHENSON'S  LATER  YEARS.        [PART  n. 

between  contractors  and  railway  companies,  or  between  one  com- 
pany and  another,  great  value  being  attached  to  his  opinion  on 
account  of  his  weighty  judgment,  his  great  experience,  and  his 
upright  character ;  and  we  believe  his  decisions  were  invariably 
stamped  by  the  qualities  of  impartiality  and  justice.  He  was  al- 
ways ready  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  a  friend,  and  no  petty  jeal- 
ousy stood  between  him  and  his  rivals  in  the  engineering  world. 
The  author  remembers  being  with  Mr.  Stephenson  one  evening 
at  his  house  in  Gloucester  Square  when  a  note  was  put  into  his 
hand  from  his  friend  Brunei,  then  engaged  in  his  fruitless  efforts 
to  launch  the  Great  Eastern.  It  was  to  ask  Stephenson  to  come 
down  to  Blackwall  early  next  morning,  and  give  him  the  benefit 
of  his  judgment.  Shortly  after  six  next  morning  Stephenson  was 
in  Scott  Kussell's  building-yard,  and  he  remained  there  until  dusk. 
About  midday,  while  superintending  the  launching  operations, 
the  balk  of  timber  on  which  he  stood  canted  up,  and  he  fell  up 
to  his  middle  in  the  Thames  mud.  He  was  dressed  as  usual, 
without  great-coat  (though  the  day  was  bitter  cold),  and  with 
only  thin  boots  upon  his  feet.  He  was  urged  to  leave  the  yard 
and  change  his  dress,  or  at  least  dry  himself ;  but,  with  his  usual 
disregard  of  health,  he  replied,  "  Oh,  never  mind  me ;  I'm  quite 
used  to  this  sort  of  thing ;"  and  he  went  paddling  about  in  the 
mud,  smoking  his  cigar,  until  almost  dark,  when  the  day's  work 
was  brought  to  an  end.  The  result  of  this  exposure  was  an  at- 
tack of  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  which  kept  him  to  his  bed  for 
a  fortnight. 

He  was  habitually  careless  of  his  health,  and  perhaps  he  in- 
dulged in  narcotics  to  a  prejudicial  extent.  Hence  he  often  be- 
came "  hipped,"  and  sometimes  ill.  When  Mr.  Sopwith  accom- 
panied him  to  Egypt  in  the  Titania,  in  1856,  he  succeeded  in 
persuading  Mr.  Stephenson  to  limit  his  indulgence  in  cigars  and 
stimulants,  and  the  consequence  was  that  by  the  end  of  the  voy- 
age he  felt  himself,  as  he  said,  "  quite  a  new  man."  Arrived  at 
Marseilles,  he  telegraphed  from  thence  a  message  to  Great  George 
Street,  prescribing  certain  stringent  and  salutary  rules  for  observ- 
ance in  the  office  there  on  his  return.  But  he  was  of  a  facile, 
social  disposition,  and  the  old  associations  proved  too  strong  for 
him.  When  he  sailed  for  Norway  in  the  autumn  of  1859,  though 
then  ailing  in  health,  he  looked  a  man  who  had  still  plenty  of  life 


CHAP.  XX.]    CHARACTERISTICS  OF  GEORGE  STEPHENSON.      487 

in  him.  By  the  time  he  returned  his  fatal  illness  had  seized  him. 
He  was  attacked  by  congestion  of  the  liver,  which  first  developed 
itself  in  jaundice,  and  then  ran  into  dropsy,  of  which  he  died  on 
the  12th  of  October,  in  the  fifty-sixth  year  of  his  age.  He  was 
buried  by  the  side  of  Telford  in  Westminster  Abbey,  amid  the 
departed  great  men  of  his  country,  and  was  attended  to  liis  rest- 
ing-place by  many  of  the  intimate  friends  of  his  boyhood  and  his 
manhood.  Among  those  who  assembled  round  his  grave  were 
some  of  the  greatest  men  of  thought  and  action  in  England,  who 
embraced  the  sad  occasion  to  pay  the  last  mark  of  their  respect 
to  this  illustrious  son  of  one  of  England's  greatest  working-men. 

It  would  be  out  of  keeping  with  the  subject  thus  drawn  to 
a  conclusion  to  pronounce  any  panegyric  on  the  character  and 
achievements  of  George  and  Robert  Stephenson.  These,  for  the 
most  part,  speak  for  themselves ;  and  both  were  emphatically  true 
men,  exhibiting  in  their  lives  many  valuable  and  sterling  qualities. 

No  beginning  could  have  been  less  promising  than  that  of  the 
elder  Stephenson.  Born  in  a  poor  condition,  yet  rich  in  spirit, 
he  was  from  the  first  compelled  to  rely  upon  himself,  every  step 
of  advance  which  he  made  being  conquered  by  patient  labor. 
Whether  working  as  a  brakesman  or  an  engineer,  his  mind  was 
always  full  of  the  work  in  hand.  He  gave  himself  thoroughly 
up  to  it.  Like  the  painter,  he  might  say  that  he  had  become 
great "  by  neglecting  nothing."  Whatever  he  was  engaged  upon, 
he  was  as  careful  of  the  details  as  if  each  were  itself  the  whole. 
He  did  all  thoroughly  and  honestly.  There  was  no  "  scamping" 
with  him.  When  a  workman,  he  put  his  brains  and  labor  into 
his  work ;  and  when  a  master,  he  put  his  conscience  and  charac- 
ter into  it.  He  would  have  no  slop-work  executed  merely  for 
the  sake  of  profit.  The  materials  must  be  as  genuine  as  the 
workmanship  was  skillful.  The  structures  which  he  designed 
and  executed  were  distinguished  for  their  thoroughness  and  so- 
lidity ;  his  locomotives  were  famous  for  their  durability  and  ex- 
cellent working  qualities.  The  engines  wliich  he  sent  to  the 
United  States  in  1832  are  still  in  good  condition ;  and  even  the 
engines  built  by  him  for  the  Killingworth  Colliery,  upward  of 
thirty  years  since,  are  working  there  to  this  day.  All  his  work 
was  honest,  representing  the  actual  character  of  the  man. 


488         CHARACTERISTICS  OF  GEORGE  STEPHENSON.    [PART  II. 

He  was  ready  to  turn  his  hand  to  any  thing — shoes  and  clocks, 
railways  and  locomotives.  He  contrived  his  safety-lamp  with  the 
object  of  saving  pitmen's  lives,  and  periled  his  own  life  in  test- 
ing it.  With  him  to  resolve  was  to  do.  Many  men  knew  far 
more  than  he,  but  none  was  more  ready  forthwith  to  apply  what 
he  did  know  to  practical  purposes.  It  was  while  working  at 
Willington  as  a  brakesman  that  he  first  learned  how  best  to  han- 
dle a  spade  in  throwing  ballast  out  of  the  ships'  holds.  This  cas- 
ual employment  seems  to  have  left  upon  his  mind  the  most  last- 
ing impression  of  what "  hard  work"  was ;  and  he  often  used  to 
revert  to  it,  and  say  to  the  young  men  about  him, "  Ah,  ye  lads ! 
there's  none  o'  ye  know  what  wark  is."  Mr.  Gooch  says  he  was 
proud  of  the  dexterity  in  handling  a  spade  which  he  had  thus  ac- 
quire^, and  that  he  has  frequently  seen  him  take  the  shovel  from 
a  laborer  in  some  railway  cutting,  and  show  him  how  to  use  it 
more  deftly  in  filling  wagons  of  earth,  gravel,  or  sand.  Sir  Joshua 
Walmsley  has  also  informed  us  that,  when  examining  the  works 
of  the  Orleans  and  Tours  Railway,  Stephenson,  seeing  a  large 
number  of  excavators  filling  and  wheeling  sand  in  a  cutting,  at  a 
great  waste  of  time  and  labor,  went  up  to  the  men  and  said  he 
would  show  them  how  to  fill  their  barrows  in  half  the  time.  He 
showed  them  the  proper  position  in  which  to  stand  so  as  to  exer- 
cise the  greatest  amount  of  power  with  the  least  expenditure  of 
strength ;  and  he  filled  the  barrow  with  comparative  ease  again 
and  again  in  their  presence,  to  the  great  delight  of  the  workmen. 
When  passing  through  his  own  workshops  he  would  point  out  to 
his  men  how  to  save  labor  and  get  through  their  work  skillfully 
and  with  ease.  His  energy  imparted  itself  to  others,  quickening 
and  influencing  them  as  strong  characters  always  do,  flowing 
down  into  theirs,  and  bringing  out  their  best  powers. 

His  deportment  to  the  workmen  employed  under  him  was  fa- 
miliar, yet  firm  and  consistent.  As  he  respected  their  manhood, 
so  they  respected  his  masterhood.  Although  he  comported  him- 
self toward  his  men  as  if  they  occupied  very  much  the  same  lev- 
el with  himself,  he  yet  possessed  that  peculiar  capacity  for  gov- 
erning which  enabled  him  always  to  preserve  among  them  the 
strictest  discipline,  and  to  secure  their  cheerful  and  hearty  serv- 
ices. Mr.  Ingham,  M.P.  for  South  Shields,  on  going  over  the 
workshops  at  Newcastle,  was  particularly  struck  with  this  quality 


CHAP.  XX.]    CHARACTERISTICS  OF  GEORGE  STEPHENSON.     489 

of  the  master  in  his  bearing  toward  his  men.  «  There  was  noth- 
ing said  he  "of  undue  familiarity  in  their  intercourse,  but  they 
spoke  to  each  other  as  man  to  man ;  and  notliing  seemed  to  please 
the  master  more  than  to  point  out  illustrations  of  the  ingenuity 
of  his  artisans  He >  took  up  a  rivet,  and  expatiated  on  the  skill 
with  which  it  had  been  fashioned  by  the  workman's  hand-its 
perfectness  and  truth.  He  was  always  proud  of  his  workmen 
and  his  pupils;  and,  while  indifferent  and  careless  as  to  what 
might  be  said  of  himself,  he  fired  up  in  a  moment  if  disparage- 
ment were  thrown  upon  any  one  whom  he  had  taught  or  trained." 
In  manner,  George  Stephenson  was  simple,  modest,  and  unas- 
suming, but  always  manly.  He  was  frank  and  social  in  spirit 
When  a  humble  workman,  he  had  carefully  preserved  his  sense 
of  self-respect.  His  companions  looked  up  to  him,  and  his  exam- 
ple was  worth  much  more  to  many  of  them  than  books  or  schools. 
His  devoted  love  of  knowledge  made  his  poverty  respectable,  and 
adorned  his  humble  calling.  When  he  rose  to  a  more  elevated 
station,  and  associated  with  men  of  the  highest  position  and  influ- 
ence in  Britain,  he  took  his  place  among  them  with  perfect  self- 
possession.  They  wondered  at  the  quiet  ease  and  simple  dignity 
of  his  deportment ;  and  men  in  the  best  ranks  of  life  have  said 
of  him  that "  he  was  one  of  Nature's  gentlemen." 

Probably  no  military  chiefs  were  ever  more  beloved  by  their 
soldiers  than  were  "both  father  and  son  by  the  army  of  men  who, 
under  their  guidance,  worked  at  labors  of  profit,  made  labors  of 
love  by  their  earnest  will  and  purpose.  True  leaders  of  men  and 
lords  of  industry,  they  were  always  ready  to  recognize  and  en- 
courage talent  in  those  who  worked  for  and  with  them.  Thus  it 
was  pleasant,  at  the  openings  of  the  Stephenson  lines,  to  hear  the 
chief  engineers  attributing  the  successful  completion  of  the  works 
to  their  assistants ;  while  the  assistants,  on  the  other  hand,  ascribed 
the  principal  glory  to  their  chiefs. 

George  Stephenson,  though  a  thrifty  and  frugal  man,  was  es- 
sentially unsordid.  His  rugged  path  in  early  life  made  him  care- 
ful of  his  resources.  He  never  saved  to  hoard,  but  saved  for  a 
purpose,  such  as  the  maintenance  of  his  parents  or  the  education 
of  his  son.  In  his  later  years  he  became  a  prosperous  and  even 
a  wealthy  man ;  but  riches  never  closed  liis  heart,  nor  stole  away 
the  elasticity  of  his  soul.  He  enjoyed  life  cheerfully,  because 


490          CHARACTERISTICS  OF  GEORGE  STEPHENSON.    [PART  II. 

hopefully.  When  he  entered  upon  a  commercial  enterprise, 
whether  for  others  or  for  himself,  he  looked  carefully  at  the 
ways  and  means.  Unless  they  would  "pay,"  he  held  back.  "  He 
would  have  nothing  to  do,"  he  declared, "  with  stock-jobbing  spec- 
ulations." His  refusal  to  sell  his  name  to  the  schemes  of  the 
railway  mania — his  survey  of  the  Spanish  lines  without  remuner- 
ation— his  offer  to  postpone  his  claim  for  payment  from  a  poor 
company  until  their  affairs  became  more  prosperous,  are  in- 
stances of  the  unsordid  spirit  in  which  he  acted. 

Another  marked  feature  in  Mr.  Stephenson's  character  was  his 
patience.  Notwithstanding  the  strength  of  his  convictions  as  to 
the  great  uses  to  which  the  locomotive  might  be  applied,  he  wait- 
ed long  and  patiently  for  the  opportunity  of  bringing  it  into  no- 
tice ;  and  for  years  after  he  had  completed  an  efficient  engine, 
he  went  on  quietly  devoting  himself  to  the  ordinary  work  of  the 
colliery.  He  made  no  noise  nor  stir  about  his  locomotive,  but 
allowed  another  to  take  credit  for  the  experiments  on  velocity 
and  friction  which  he  had  made  with  it  upon  the  Killingworth 
railroad.  By  patient  industry  and  laborious  contrivance  he  was 
enabled,  with  the  powerful  help  of  his  son,  almost  to  do  for  the 
locomotive  what  James  Watt  had  done  for  the  condensing  en- 
gine. He  found  it  clumsy  and  inefficient,  and  he  made  it  pow- 
erful, efficient,  and  useful.  Both  have  been  described  as  the  im- 
provers of  their  respective  engines ;  but,  as  to  all  that  is  admira- 
ble in  their  structure  or  vast  in  their  utility,  they  are  rather  enti- 
tled to  be  described  as  their  inventors.  They  have  both  tended 
to  increase  indefinitely  the  mass  of  human  comforts  and  enjoy- 
ments, and  to  render  them  cheap  and  accessible  to  all.  But  Ste- 
phenson's invention,  by  the  influence  which  it  is  daily  exercising 
upon  the  civilization  of  the  world,  is  even  more  remarkable  than 
that  of  Watt,  and  is  calculated  to  have  still  more  important  con- 
sequences. In  this  respect  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  grandest 
application  of  steam-power  that  has  yet  been  discovered. 

George  Stephenson's  close  and  accurate  observation  provided 
him  with  a  fullness  of  information  on  many  subjects  which  often 
appeared  surprising  to  those  who  had  devoted  to  them  a  special 
study.  On  one  occasion  the  accuracy  of  his  knowledge  of  birds 
came  out  in  a  curious  way  at  a  convivial  meeting  of  railway  men 
in  London.  The  engineers  and  railway  directors  present  knew 


CHAP. XX.]    CHARACTERISTICS  OF  GEORGE  STEPHENSON.      491 

each  other  as  railway  men  and  nothing  more.  The  talk  had  been 
all  of  railways  and  railway  politics.  Stephenson  was  a  great 
talker  on  those  subjects,  and  was  generally  allowed,  from  the  in- 
terest of  his  conversation  and  the  extent  of  his  experience,  to  take 
the  lead.  At  length  one  of  the  party  broke  in  with, "  Come,  now, 
Stephenson,  we  have  had  nothing  but  railways !  can  not  we  have 
a  change,  and  try  if  we  can  talk  a  little  about  something  else  ?" 
"  Well,"  said  Stephenson, "  I'll  give  you  a  wide  range  of  subjects ; 
what  shall  it  be  about  ?"  "  Say  birds'  nests  /"  rejoined  the  other, 
who  prided  himself  on  his  special  knowledge  of  the  subject. 
"  Then  birds'  nests  be  it."  A  long  and  animated  conversation 
ensued:  the  bird-nesting  of  his  boyhood — the  blackbird's  nest 
which  his  father  had  held  him  up  in  liis  arms  to  look  at  when  a 
child  at  "Wylam — the  hedges  in  which  he  had  found  the  thrush's 
and  the  linnet's  nests — the  mossy  bank  where  the  robin  built — 
the  cleft  in  the  branch  of  the  young  tree  where  the  chaffinch  had 
reared  its  dwelling — all  rose  up  clear  in  his  mind's  eye,  and  led 
him  back  to  the  scenes  of  his  boyhood  at  Callerton  and  Dewley 
Burn.  The  color  and  number  of  the  birds'  eggs — the  period  of 
their  incubation — the  materials  employed  by  them  for  the  walls 
and  lining  of  their  nests,  were  described  by  him  so  vividly,  and 
illustrated  by  such  graphic  anecdotes,  that  one  of  the  party  re- 
marked that,  if  George  Stephenson  had  not  been  the  greatest  en- 
gineer of  his  day,  he  might  have  been  one  of  the  greatest  natu- 
ralists. 

His  powers  of  conversation  were  very  great.  He  was  so 
thoughtful,  original,  and  suggestive.  There  was  scarcely  a  de- 
partment of  science  on  which  lie  had  not  formed  some  novel 
and  sometimes  daring  theory.  Thus  Mr.  Gooch,  his  pupil,  who 
lived  with  him  when  at  Liverpool,  informs  us  that  when  sitting 
over  the  fire,  he  would  frequently  broach  his  favorite  theory  of 
the  sun's  light  and  heat  being  the  original  source  of  the  light 
and  heat  given  forth  by  the  burning  coal.  "  It  fed  the  plants  of 
which  that  coal  is  made,"  he  would  say,  "and  has  been  bottled 
up  in  the  earth  ever  since,  to  be  given  out  again  now  for  the  use 
of  man."  His  son  Kobert  once  said  of  him, "  My  father  flashed 
his  bull's  eye  full  upon  a  subject,  and  brought  it  out  in  its  most 
vivid  light  in  an  instant :  his  strong  common  sense  and  his  varied 
experience,  operating  on -a  thoughtful  mind,  were  his 
erful  illuminators." 


4:92         CHARACTERISTICS  OF  GEORGE  STEPHENSON.    [PART  II. 

The  Bishop  of  Oxford  related  the  following  anecdote  of  him 
at  a  recent  public  meeting  in  London :  "  He  heard  the  other  day 
of  an  answer  given  by  the  great  self-taught  man,  Stephenson, 
when  he  was  speaking  with  something  of  distrust  of  what  were 
called  competitive  examinations.  Stephenson  said, '  I  distrust 
them  for  this  reason — they  will  lead,  it  seems  to  me,  to  an  un- 
limited power  of  cram;'  and  he  added,  'Let  me  give  you  one 
piece  of  advice — never  to  judge  of  your  goose  by  its  stuffing !' " 

George  Stephenson  had  once  a  conversation  with  a  watch- 
maker, whom  he  astonished  by  the  extent  and  minuteness  of  his 
knowledge  as  to  the  parts  of  a  watch.  The  watchmaker  knew 
him  to  be  an  eminent  engineer,  and  asked  how  he  had  acquired 
so  extensive  a  knowledge  of  a  branch  of  business  so  much  out 
of  his  sphere.  "  It  is  very  easily  to  be  explained,"  said  Stephen- 
son  ;  "  I  worked  long  at  watch-cleaning  myself,  and  when  I  was 
at  a  loss,  I  was  never  ashamed  to  ask  for  information." 

His  hand  was  open  to  his  former  fellow-workmen  whom  old 
age  had  left  in  poverty.  To  poor  Robert  Gray,  of  Newburn, 
who  acted  as  his  brideman  on  his  marriage  to  Fanny  Henderson, 
he  left  a  pension  for  life.  He  would  slip  a  five-pound  note  into 
the  hand  of  a  poor  man  or  a  widow  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  of- 
fend their  delicacy,  but  to  make  them  feel  as  if  the  obligation 
were  all  on  his  side.  When  Farmer  Paterson,  who  married  a 
sister  of  George's  first  wife,  Fanny  Henderson,  died  and  left  a 
large  young  family  fatherless,  poverty  stared  them  in  the  face. 
"But  ye  ken,"  said  our  informant,  "George  struck  infaytherfor 
them?  And  perhaps  the  providential  character  of  the  act  could 
not  have  been  more  graphically  expressed  than  in  these  simple 
words. 

On  his  visit  to  Newcastle,  he  would  frequently  meet  the  friends 
of  his  early  days,  occupying  very  nearly  the  same  station  in  life, 
while  he  had  meanwhile  risen  to  almost  world-wide  fame ;  but 
he  was  not  less  hearty  in  his  greeting  of  them  than  if  their  rela- 
tive position  had  remained  the  same.  Thus,  one  day,  after  shak- 
ing hands  with  Mr.  Brandling  on  alighting  from  his  carriage,  he 
proceeded  to  shake  hands  with  his  coachman,  Anthony  Wigham, 
a  still  older  friend,  though  he  only  sat  on  the  box. 

Robert  Stephenson  inherited  his  father's  kindly  spirit  and  be- 
nevolent disposition.  We  have  already  stated  that  he  was  often 


CHAP.  XX.]     CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ROBERT  STEPHENSON.     493 

called  in  as  an  umpire  to  mediate  between  conflicting  parties, 
more  particularly  between  contractors  and  engineers.  On  one 
occasion  Brunei  complained  to  liim  that  he  could  not  get  on  with 
his  contractors,  who  were  never  satisfied,  and  were  always  quar- 
reling with  him.  "  You  hold  them  too  tightly  to  the  letter  of 
your  agreement,"  said  Stephenson ;  "  treat  them  fairly  and  liber- 
ally." "  But  they  try  to  take  advantage  of  me  at  all  points,"  re- 
joined Brunei.  "  Perhaps  you  suspect  them  too  much  ?"  said  Ste- 
phenson. "  I  suspect  all  men  to  be  rogues,"  said  the  other,  "  till 
I  find  them  to  be  honest."  "  For  my  part,"  said  Stephenson,  "  I 
take  all  men  to  be  honest  till  I  find  them  to  be  rogues."  "  Ah ! 
then,  I  fear  we  shall  never  agree,"  concluded  Brunei. 

Robert  almost  worshiped  his  father's  memory,  and  was  ever 
ready  to  attribute  to  him  the  chief  merit  of  his  own  achieve- 
ments as  an  engineer.  "  It  was  his  thorough  training,"  we  once 
heard  him  say,  "  his  example,  and  his  character,  which  made  me 
the  man  I  am."  On  a  more  public  occasion  he  said,  "  It  is  my 
great  pride  to  remember  that,  whatever  may  have  been  done,  and 
however  extensive  may  have  been  my  own  connection  with  rail- 
way development,  all  I  know  and  all  I  have  done  is  primarily 
due  to  the  parent  whose  memory  I  cherish  and  revere."*  To 
Mr.  Lough,  the  sculptor,  he  said  he  had  never  had  but  two  loves 
— one  for  his  father,  the  other  for  his  wife. 

Like  his  father,  he  was  eminently  practical,  and  yet  always 
open  to  the  influence  and  guidance  of  correct  theory.  His  main 
consideration  in  laying  out  his  lines  of  railway  was  what  would 
best  answer  the  intended  purpose,  or,  to  use  his  own  words,  to  se- 
cure the  maximum  of  result  with  the  minimum  of  means.  He 
was  pre-eminently  a  safe  man,  because  cautious,  tentative,  and  ex- 
perimental ;  following  closely  the  lines  of  conduct  trodden  by  his 
father,  and  often  quoting  his  maxims. 

In  society  Eobert  Stephenson  was  simple,  unobtrusive,  and 
modest,  but  charming  and  even  fascinating  in  an  eminent  degree. 
Sir  John  Lawrence  has  said  of  him  that  he  was,  of  all  others,  the 
man  he  most  delighted  to  meet  in  England — he  was  so  manly  yet 
gentle,  and  withal  so  great.  While  admired  and  beloved  by  men 
of  such  calibre,  he  was  equally  a  favorite  with  women  and  chil- 
dren. He  put  himself  upon  the  level  of  all,  and  charmed  them 
*  Address  as  President  of  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  January,  1856. 


494:  POLITICS  OF  THE  TWO  STEPHENSONS.         [PA*T  II. 

no  less  by  his  inexpressible  kindliness  of  manner  than  by  his  sim- 
ple yet  impressive  conversation. 

His  great  wealth  enabled  him  to  perform  many  generous  acts 
in  a  right  noble  and  yet  modest  manner,  not  letting  his  right 
hand  know  what  his  left  hand  did.  Of  the  numerous  kindly 
acts  of  his  which  have  been  made  public,  we  may  mention  the 
graceful  manner  in  which  he  repaid  the  obligations  which  both 
himself  and  his  father  owed  to  the  Newcastle  Literary  and  Phil- 
osophical Institute  when  working  together  as  fellow  experiment- 
ers many  years  before  in  their  humble  cottage  at  Kilh'ngworth. 
The  Institute  was  struggling  under  a  debt  of  £6200,  which  im- 
paired its  usefulness  as  an  educational  agency.  Mr.  Stephenson 
offered  to  pay  one  half  the  sum  provided  the  local  supporters 
of  the  Institute  would  raise  the  remainder,  and  conditional  also 
on  the  annual  subscription  being  reduced  from  two  guineas  to 
one,  in  order  that  the  usefulness  of  the  institution  might  be 
extended.  His  generous  offer  was  accepted  and  the  debt  extin- 
guished. 

Both  father  and  son  were  offered  knighthood,  and  both  de- 
clined it.  During  the  summer  of  1847,  George  Stephenson  was 
invited  to  offer  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  representation  of 
South  Shields  in  Parliament.  But  his  politics  were  at  best  of  a 
very  undefined  sort.  Indeed,  his  life  had  been  so  much  occupied 
with  subjects  of  a  practical  character  that  he  had  scarcely  troub- 
led himself  to  form  any  decided  opinion  on  the  party  political 
topics  of  the  day,  and  to  stand  the  cross-fire  of  the  electors  on  the 
hustings  might  possibly  have  proved  an  even  more  distressing  or- 
deal than  the  cross-questioning  of  the  hamsters  in  the  Commit- 
tees of  the  House  of  Commons.  "  Politics,"  he  used  to  say, "  are 
all  matters  of  theory — there  is  no  stability  in  them;  they  shift 
about  like  the  sands  of  the  sea ;  and  I  should  feel  quite  out  of 
my  element  among  them."  He  had,  accordingly,  the  good  sense 
respectfully  to  decline  the  honor  of  contesting  the  representation 
of  South  Shields. 

We  have,  however,  been  informed  by  Sir  Joseph  Paxton  that, 
although  George  Stephenson  held  no  strong  opinions  on  political 
questions  generally,  there  was  one  question  on  which  he  enter- 
tained a  decided  conviction,  and  that  was  the  question  of  Free 
Trade.  The  words  used  by  him  on  one  occasion  to  Sir  Joseph 


CHAP.  XX.]  AD  VANTA  GES  OF  RAIL  WA  YS.  495 

were  very  strong.  "  England,"  said  he, "  is,  and  must  be,  a  shop- 
keeper ;  and  our  docks  and  harbors  are  only  so  many  wholesale 
shops,  the  doors  of  which  should  always  be  kept  wide  open."  It 
is  curious  that  his  son  should  have  taken  precisely  the  opposite 
view  of  this  question,  and  acted  throughout  with  the  most  rigid 
party  among  the  Protectionists,  supporting  the  Navigation  Laws 
and  opposing  Free  Trade,  even  to  the  extent  of  going  into  the 
lobby  with  Colonel  Sibthorp,  Mr.  Spooner,  and  the  fifty-three 
"  cannon-balls,"  on  the  26th  of  November,  1852.  Eobert  Ste- 
phenson  to  the  last  spoke  in  strong  terms  as  to  the  "  betrayal  of 
the  Protectionist  party"  by  their  chosen  leader,  and  he  went  so 
far  as  to  say  that  he  "  could  never  forgive  Peel." 

But  Robert  Stephenson  will  be  judged  in  after  times  by  liis 
achievements  as  an  engineer  rather  than  by  his  acts  as  a  politi- 
cian ;  and,  happily,  these  last  were  far  outweighed  in  value  by 
the  immense  practical  services  which  he  rendered  to  trade,  com- 
merce, and  civilization,  through  the  facilities  which  the  railways 
constructed  by  him  afforded  for  free  intercommunication  between 
men  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Speaking  in  the  midst  of  his 
friends  at  Newcastle  in  1850,  he  observed : 

"  It  seems  to  me  but  as  yesterday  that  I  was  engaged  as  an  as- 
sistant in  laying  out  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway.  Since 
then,  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  and  a  hundred  other  great 
works  have  sprung  into  existence.  As  I  look  back  upon  these  stu- 
pendous undertakings,  accomplished  in  so  short  a  time,  it  seems  as 
though  we  had  realized  in  our  generation  the  fabled  powers  of  the 
magician's  wand.  Hills  have  been  cut  down  and  valleys  filled  up ; 
and  when  these  simple  expedients  have  not  sufficed,  high  and  mag- 
nificent viaducts  have  been  raised,  and,  if  mountains  stood  in  the 
way,  tunnels  of  unexampled  magnitude  have  pierced  them  through, 
bearing  their  triumphant  attestation  to  the  indomitable  energy  of 
the  nation,  and  the  unrivaled  skill  of  our  artisans." 

As  respects  the  immense  advantages  of  railways  to  mankind 
there  can  not  be  two  opinions.  They  exhibit,  probably,  the 
grandest  organization  of  capital  and  labor  that  the  world  has  yet 
seen.  Although  they  have  unhappily  occasioned  great  loss  to 
many,  the  loss  has  been  that  of  individuals,  while,  as  a  national 
system,  the  gain  has  already  been  enormous.  As  tending  to  mul- 
tiply and  spread  abroad  the  conveniences  of  life,  opening  up  new 


496 


AD  VANTAGES  OF  RAIL  WA  YS. 


[PART  II. 


fields  of  industry,  bringing  nations  nearer  to  each  other,  and  thus 
promoting  the  great  ends  of  civilization,  the  founding  of  the  rail- 
way system  by  George  Stephenson  and  his  son  must  be  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  important  events,  if  not  the  very  greatest,  in 
the  first  half  of  this  nineteenth  century. 


THE  STEPHENSON  MEMORIAL  SCHOOLS,  WILLINGTON   QUAY. 


INDEX. 


AOCIHENT,  G.  Stephenson's  stage-coach,  389. 

Accidents  in  coal-mines,  175, 196. 

Adam,  Mr.,  counsel  for  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester Railway  Bill,  265. 

Adhesion  of  wheel  and  rail,  82, 152, 156, 165. 

Albert,  Prince,  an  early  traveler  by  rail,  390. 

Alderson,  Mr.,  counsel  against  Liverpool  and 
Manchester  Railway  Bill,  -20S,  271, 274,  275. 

Allcard,  Wm.,  283. 

Alton  Grange,  G.  Stephenson's  house  at,  344. 

Ambersate,  laud-slip  at,  372 ;  lime-works  at, 
394,  395. 

Anderson,  Dr.,  his  early  advocacy  of  railroads, 

Arnold,  Dr.,  on  railways,  390. 
Atmospheric  railways,  402, 403, 426-428. 

Bald,  Robert,  mining  engineer,  198,  212. 

Barrow,  Sir  John,  on  railway  speed,  262. 

Beaumont,  Mr.,  his  wooden  wagon-waye,  48. 

Belgium,  railways  in,  3S2 ;  G.  Stephenson's  vis- 
its to,  3S2,  3S3, 415. 

Benton  Colliery  and  village,  138, 140, 151. 

Berkeley,  Mr.,  on  railways,  341. 

Berwick,  Royal  Border  Bridge  at,  430. 

Bird-nesting,  G.  Stephenson's  love  of,  106, 109, 
380, 491. 

Black  Callerton  Colliery,  109, 116, 117. 

Blackett,  Mr.  Wylam,  102,  153, 154, 157-161. 

Blast,  the  steam,  its  invention,  170. 

Blenkinsop,  Mr.,  Leeds,  his  locomotive,  155- 

Blisworth  Cutting,  355. 

Boiler,  the  multitubnlar,  its  invention,  316-318. 

Booth,  Henry,  256, 312,  318,  319. 

Bonlton,  Matthew,  his  tubular  boiler,  316-318. 

Boulton  and  Watt,  and  the  locomotive,  63-68. 

Bradshaw,  Mr.,  his  opposition  to  Liverpool 
and  Manchester  line,  255, 258. 

Braithwaite  and  Ericsson's  "Novelty,"  322- 
324. 

Brake,  G.  Stephenson's  self-acting,  334,  398. 

Brakeing  of  colliery  engines,  116-118, 131. 

Brandling,  Messrs.,  1S4, 191, 192, 431. 

Brandreth's  "  Cycloped,"  322. 

Bridge  building,  rapid  progress  of,  431, 432. 

Bridges-Royal  Border,  430;  High-Level,New- 
castle,  431 ;  Britannia  (Menai),  439-442 ;  Con- 
way,  451;  Victoria,  Lower  Canada,  476. 

Britannia  Bridge,  North  Wales,  449,  452-459. 

Brougham.William,  counsel  for  Liverpool  and 
Manchester  Bill,  262, 265. 

Bruce,  Mr.,  R.  Stephenson's  schoolmaster,  141. 

Brunei,  I.  K.,  423-427, 486. 

Brunton's  "  Mechanical  Traveler,"  157. 

Brussels,  railway  celebrations  at,  3S3, 416. 

Buckland,  Dr.,  467. 

Bull  Bridsre,  near  Ambergate,  373. 

Bull,  Edward,  his  Cornish  ensrine,  76;  Wil- 
liam, partner  of  Trevithick,  76,  as. 

Burrell,  G.  Stephenson's  partner,  207. 

Burstall's  "Perseverance," 322,  326. 


Callerton  Colliery  and  village,  109, 116, 117. 

Canada,  railways  in,  Prtf.,  v.,  476. 

Canal  Companies'  opposition  to  railways,  260, 

Cardiff  and  Merthyr  Railroad,  73. 

Carrying  stock  of  railways,  Prtf.,  ix.,  334. 

Cattle  brought  to  London  by  rail,  Prtf.,  xx. 

Chapman's  locomotive,  157, 163. 

"  Charlotte  Dundas,"  the  first  practical  steam- 
Chat  Moss,  surveying  on,  252,  264 ;  railway 
constructed  on,  283-288. 

Chester  and  Birkenhead  Railway,  402 ;  and 
Holyhead  Railway,  438. 

Chesterfield,  town  of,  395, 471. 

Clanny,  Dr.,  his  safety-lamp,  179, 196. 

Clark,  Edwin,  R.  Stephenson's  assistant,  448. 

Claycross  Colliery,  394, 420. 

Coach,  first  railway,  240. 

Coal,  working  of,  100, 101 ;  supply  of,  to  Lon- 
don, Pref.,  xxv. ;  haulage  of,  153, 161 ;  sap- 
ply  of,  by  railways,  386, 392. 

Coal  Railways,  G.  Stepheuson  on,  393. 

Cochrane.  Lord,  and  Peruvian  revolution,  89. 

Coe,  William,  116, 117, 121, 125. 

Coffin,  Sir  Isaac,  on  railways,  280. 

Collieries,  G.  Stephenson's,  at  Snibston,  344 ; 
at  Claycross,  392. 

Colombia,  R.  Stephenson's  residence  in,  301- 
308. 

Companies,  joint-stock  railway,  339,  404. 

Contractors  and  railways,  353, 360,  361, 493. 

Conversation,  G.  Stephenson's  love  of,  463, 491. 

Conway,  tubular  bridge  at,  450,  451. 

Cooper,  Sir  A.,  R.  Stepnenson's  interview  with, 
350? 

Cornish  engineers,  early,  75, 76. 

Correspondence,  G.  StephensonX  297,  379, 3SO. 

Crib-work,  Victoria  Bridge,  479, 480. 

Cropper,  Isaac,  Liverpool^  293,  313,  325. 

"CroTvdienight,"a,465. 

Croydon  and  Mersthatn  Railroad,  74,  216. 

Cubitt.W.,  evidence  of,  on  Liverpool  •nn¥tll> 
Chester  Railway,  272. 

Cugnot,  N.,  his  road  locomotive,  60. 

Curr,  John,  his  cast-iron  tram-way,  60. 

Cuttings— Olivo  Mount,  291;  Tring,354;  Ells- 
worth, 356;  Ambergate,  372;  Oakenshaw, 
ST2. 

Darlington,  railway  projected  at,  218. 
Darwin,  Erasmus,  his  flery  chariot,  53-59. 
Davy,  Sir  II.,  on  Trevithick's  eteam^jriape, 


79 ;  his  paper  on  fire-damp,  179  ;  his  safety- 
lamp.189;  testimonial  to,  191 ;  his  lamp  com- 
pared with  Stephenson's,  195. 


Denman,  Lord,  463. 

Derbv,  Earl  of,  and  Liverpool  and  Manchester 

Railway,  252, 258, 980. 
Dewley  Burn  Colliery,  107-111. 
Direct  lines,  rage  for",  408. 
Dixon,  John,  assists  in  survey  of  Stockton  and 


498 


INDEX. 


Darlington  Railway,  219,  236 ;  resident  en- 
gineer Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway, 

Dodds,  Ralph,  Killingworth,  132, 139. 
Dutton  Viaduct,  366. 

East  Coast  route  to  Scotland,  426. 

Edgeworth,  R.  L.,  early  speculations  on  rail- 
ways, 56,  57. 

Eggs,  brought  to  London  by  rail,  Pref.,  xxii. 

Egypt,  R.  Stephenson's  tubular  bridges  in,  507; 
Suez  Canal,  484,  485. 

Electric  telegraphing  on  railways,  Pref.,  xiii. 

Emerson,  G.  Stephenson's  meeting  with,  469, 
470. 

Ericsson's  "Novelty,"  322-324. 

Evans,  Oliver,  his  steam-carriage,  71,  72 ;  his 
boiler,  77. 

Explosions  from  fire-damp,  175. 

Fairbairn,  William,  C.E.,  early  friendship  with 

G.  Stephenson,  124, 125 ;  experiments  on  iron 

tubes  for  R.  Stepheuson,  446. 
Fire-damp,  explosions  of,  175. 
Fish  brought  to  London  by  rail,  Pref.,  xxi. 
Fitch,  John,  American  engineer,  71. 
Food  brought  to  London  by  rail,  Pref.,  xix. 
Forth-Street  Works,  Newcastle,  232,  396. 
Foster,  Jonathan,  Wylam,  158. 
Foundations— of  bridge  on  the  Derwent,  372  ; 

of  High  •  Level  Bridge,  Newcastle,  434 ;  of 

Victoria  Bridge,  Montreal,  479. 
Free  Trade,  G.  Stephenson's  notions  of,  494, 

Friction,  G.  Stephenson's  early  experiments  in, 

202 ;  and  gradients,  400. 
Frolic,  G.  Stephenson's  love  of,  135,  375, 465. 

Gauge  of  railways,  234,  424. 
"Geordy"  safety-lamp,  175-195. 
Gilbert,  Davies,  and  Trevithick,  79,  82,  83. 
Giles,  Francis,  C.E.,  his  evidence  against  Liv- 
erpool and  Manchester  Railway  Bill,  273,  275, 

Gooch,  Thomas,  C.E.,  277,  295,  328,  330.  ' 

Government  and  railways,  337,  338. 

Gradients  and  friction,  202,  400. 

Grand  Allies,  Killingworth,  135. 

Grand  Junction  Railway,  341,  365. 

Grand  Trunk  Railway,  Canada,  476. 

Gray,  Thomas,  and  the  locomotive,  156, 311. 

Great  Western  Railway,  340, 342, 424. 

Greenwich  Railway  opened  as  a  "show,"  Pref., 

xv. 
Gurney,  Goldsworthy,  171, 317. 

Hackworth,  T.,  and  the  steam-blast,  174 ;  his 
locomotive  "  Sanspareil,"  322,  324,  325,  326. 

Half-lap  joint,  G.  Stephenson's,  200. 

Harrison,  Mr.,  counsel  against  Liverpool  and 
Manchester  Bill,  265,  272,  276.  ' 

Harvey,  Mr.,  engineer,  Hayle,  76. 

Hedley,  William,  Wylam,  159, 160, 171. 

Henderson,  Fanny,  G.  Stephenson's  first  wife, 
118, 123, 125, 127. 

Heppel,  Kit,  Killingworth,  132, 135. 

Hetton  Railway  constructed  by  G.  Stephenson, 


High-Level  Bridge,  Newcastle,  433. 
Hindmarsh,  Miss,  G.  Stephenson's  s 


•-Mi. 


.'s  second  wife, 


Hodgkinson,  Professor,  his  calculations  as  to 

strength  of  iron  tubes,  447. 
Holyhead,  railway  to,  438. 
Hornblower,  Jonathan,  75, 76. 
Horticulture,  G.  Stephenson's  experiments  in, 

460,  461. 
Horse  traction  on  railways,  48,  57,  74, 153, 166, 

234,  240. 


Ho  wick,  Lord,  his  support  of  atmospheric  rail- 
ways, 427 ;  G.  Stephenson's  interview  with, 
428,429. 

Hudson,  George,  the  "Railway  King,"  407, 

Huskisson,  Mr.,  an  early  advocate  of  railways, 

278,  280 ;  fatal  accident  to,  331. 
Hydraulic  press  used  to  lift  the  tubes  at  the 

Britannia  Bridge,  456. 

Ice-flood  at  Montreal,  481, 482. 
Inclined  planes,  self-acting,  149, 150, 162. 
India,  railways  in,  Pref.,  iv. 
Iron  bridge  building,  progress  in,  432,  443. 
Italian  ratlways,  Pref.,  iv. 

James,  William,  surveys  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester Railway,  248 ;  visit  to  Killingworth, 
250 ;  arrangement  with  Stephenson  and 
Losh,  251 ;  compelled  to  relinquish  the  sur- 
vey, 253,  254. 

James,  W.  H.,  his  tubular  boiler,  317. 

Jameson,  Professor,  Edinburg,  213. 

Jessop,  William,  his  cast-iron  edge-rail,  61. 

Joy,  Mr.,  counsel  for  Liverpool  and  Manches- 
ter Bill,  f 


Keelmen  of  the  Tyne,  101, 102. 

Kent,  opposition  to  railways  in,  342. 

Killiugworth,  126,  129  ;  High  Pit,  131 ;  loco- 
motive, 168 ;  underground  machinery  198 ; 
visited  by  Edward  Pease,  230;  W.  James, 
250;  promoters  of  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
Railway,  257. 

Kilmarnock  and  Troon  tram-road,  206. 

Kilsby  Tunnel,  342,  357-361,  363. 

Lambton,  Mr.  (Earl  of  Durham),  225. 
Lamp,  inventioa  of  the  safety,  175. 
Land-slip  at  Ambergate,  372. 
Landlords  and  railways,  223,  252,  341,  352,  469. 
Lardner,  Dr.,  on  undulating  lines,  400. 
Leicester  and  Swannington  Railway,  343. 
Leopold,   King,  G.  Stephenson's   interviews 

with,  382,  383, 416. 

Lime-works  at  Ambergate,  394,  395. 
Littleborough  Tunnel,  368. 


Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway  projected, 
247  ;  survey  by  W.  James,  249 ;  George  Ste- 
phenson appointed  ensjiueeer,  254  ;  virulent 


opposition,  259,  260 ;  the  bill  in  committee, 
265 ;  rejected,  277 ;  renewed  application,  278 ; 
the  bill  passed,  280 ;  the  railway  construct- 
ed, 281 ;  discussion  as  to  the  power  to  be 
employed  to  work  the  line,  311 ;  prize  offer- 
ed for  the  best  locomotive,  314 ;  the  com- 
petition at  Rainhill,  322  ;  triumph  of  the 
"Rocket,"  326;  public  opening  of  the  rail- 
way, 330 ;  its  success,  332. 

Locke,  Joseph,  C.E.,  resident  engineer  on  Liv- 
erpool and  Manchester  Railway,  283. 

Locomotive  engine  gradually  perfected,  47 ;  Sir 
I.  Newton's  idea,  53  ;  Darwin's,  53-59 ;  Cug- 
not's,  60-63;  James  Watt's,  60,  64 ;  "William 
Murdock's  model  locomotive,  06 ;  William 
Symington's  model,  68-70 ;  Oliver  Evans's 
71 ;  Richard  Trevithick's  steam-carriage  and 
first  locomotive,  77-82  ;  Blenkinsop's  Leeds 
locomotive,  155 ;  Blackett's  Wylam  locomo- 
tive, 157-161 ;  Stephenson's  Killingworth  lo- 
comotive, 164-170  ;  farther  improvements  by 
Stephenson,  201,  202 ;  locomotives  construct- 
ed for  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway,  235; 
the  "  Rocket,"  319 ;  farther  improvements  in 
locomotives,  335;  number  of  locomotives  in 
the  United  Kingdom,  Pref.,  ix.,  x. ;  self-feed- 
ing apparatus  of,  ib.,  xiv. 

Locomotive  workshops  at  Newcastle,  the  Ste- 
phensons',  232, 396. 


INDEX. 


490 


London  and  Birmingham  Railway,  349-364. 

London,  railways  in,  opening  of  the  Green- 
wich line,  Pref.,  xv. ;  magnitude  of  suburb- 
an traffic,  16.,  xvi.  ;  new  lines  opened,  ib., 
xvi. ;  population  increased  by,  j'6.,  xviii. ; 
provisioning  of  London,  ib.,  six. ;  coal  sup- 
ply of,  ib.,  xxv. 

!,osh,  Mr.  Stephensou's  partner,  201,  233. 

Lough's  statue  of  G.  Stephenson,  472. 

Mackworth,  Sir  H.,  his  sailing  wagon,  52. 

Mail  service  by  railway,  Pref.,  xxvi. 

Manchester,  railways  projected  iu  connection 
with,  340  ;  and  Leeds  Railway,  366. 

Mania,  the  railway,  405,  406. 

Maps—of  Newcastle  district,  OS;  Stockton  and 
Darlington  Railway,  224 ;  Liverpool  and 
Mancho.-t<T  Railway,  2.MI-2M  ;  Leicester  and 
Swaunington  Railway,  343  ;  London  and 
Birmingham  Railway,  354;  Midland  Rail- 
way, 370  ;  Straits  of  Menai,  442. 

Mechanics'  Institute?,  G.  Stephenson  at  meet- 
ings of,  397. 

Menai,  bridge  over  Straits  of,  439. 

Merchandise,  traffic  of  London,  Pref.,  xxvi. 

Merstham  tram-road,  74,  217. 

Merthyr  tram-road,  73;  Trevithick's  locomo- 
tive tried  on,  SO. 

Middlesborough-on-Tees,  growth  of,  245. 

Midland  Rail  way,  370. 

Milk  brought  to'London  by  rail,  7V«/.,xxiv. 

Miller,  Mr.,  Dalswiuton,  and  steam  naviga- 
tion, 70. 

Montreal,  Victoria  Bridge  at,  476. 

Moore,  Francis,  his  patent  for  steam-carriages, 
63. 

Morecambe  Bay,  G.  Stephenson's  proposed 
line  across,  376. 

Moss,  Chat  (see  I'/mf  Moss). 

Multitubular  boiler,  invention  of  the,  318. 

Murdock,  William,  his  model  locomotive,  66  ; 
Watt  discourages  his  application  to  the  sub- 
ject, 67,  77. 

Murray,  Matthew,  and  the  Leeds  locomotive, 
155. 

Nasmvth's  steam-hammer  first  applied  to  pile- 
driving,  434. 

NavviesrRailway,  362. 

Newcastle-on-Tyue,  early  history,  97 ;  Liter- 
ary and  Philosophical  institute;  142,  1S5, 189, 
209,  494  ;  Mechanics'  Institute,  397  ;  High- 
Level  Bridge,  431. 

Newcastle  and  Berwick  Railway,  426. 

Newcomen's  atmospheric  enarine,  100. 

Neville's  tubular  boiler,  317,  318. 

Newton,  Sir  I.,  his  idea  of  steam  locomotion, 
53. 

Nicholson's  steam-jet,  82, 171. 

Nile,  R.  Stepheusou's  tubular  bridges  over  the, 
475. 

North  Midland  Railway,  370,  373,  374. 

North,  Roger,  description  of  early  tram-roads, 
49. 

Northampton,  opposition  of,  to  railways,  342. 

Northumberland  Atmospheric  Railway,  427. 

"Novelty"  locomotive,  323. 

Oaks  Pit  Colliery  explosion,  195. 

Offices,  Stephenson's  London,  381,  407. 

Old  Quay  Navigation,  Liverpool,  256. 

Olive  Mount  Cutting,  291. 

Opening  of  railways-Helton,  209;  Stockton 
and  Darlington,  886;  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester, 330 ;  London  and  Birmingham,  384 ; 
in  Midland  Counties,  3S4;  East  Coast  route 
to  Scotland,  4-.V,.  4:57  :  Britannia  Bridge,  458 ; 
Trent  Valley,  469. 

Opposition  to  railways — in  country  districts, 


337, 341 ;  at  Northampton,  342 ;  in  Kent,  342  : 

at  Eton,  342 ;  to  London  and  Birmingham, 

350. 
Organization— of  early  railways,  330,  333 ;  of 

modem  railways,  Ptef.,  xi. 
Outram's  railway,  first  use  of  stone  blocks,  51. 

Parliament  and  railways,  338, 406, 410. 

Parr  Moss,  railway  across,  288. 

Passenger-carriage,  the  first,  240. 

Passenger-traffic,  beginnings  of,  Pref..  vii.,  xv 
240,  241. 333, 338  ;  of  London,  Pref.,  xvii. 

Pease,  Edward,  promotes  Stockton  and  Dar- 
lington Railway,  his  character,  222;  anticipa- 
tions concerning  railways,  225;  intercourse 
with  George  Stephenson,  227,  229,  230,  881, 
232 ;  assists  George  Stephenson  with  capital, 
232;  faith  in  the  locomotive,  235,  246;  fetter 
to  Robert  Stephenson,  306,  307. 

Peel,  Sir  R.,  on  undulating  Hues,  409,  410;  O. 
Stephenson's  visit  to,  467. 

Peumaen  Mawr,  railway  under,  439. 

Pen-y-darran,  Trevithick's  locomotive  made 
and  tried  at,  80-82. 

Permanent  way,  Prtf.,  yiii.,  xi.,  159,  200. 

Peruvian  mining,  Trevithick's  adventures  in 
connection  with,  87. 

Petherick,  J.,  his  description  of  Trcvithick's 
steam-carriage,  78, 79. 

Phillips,  Sir  Richard,  on  railroads,  21T. 

Pile-driving  by  steam,  4.14. 

Pitmen,  habits  and  character  of  Newcastle, 
100,101. 

Plate-ways,  50, 82. 

Politics,  G.  and  R.  Stephenson's,  494. 

Population  of  London,  how  influenced  by  rail- 
ways, Pref.,  xviii. 

Postal  service  and  railways,  Pref.,  xxvii. 

Potatoes  brought  to  London  by  rail,  Pref., 
xxiii. 

Poultry  brought  to  London  by  rail,  Pref.,  xxii. 

Primrose  Hill  Tunnel,  356. 

Professional  charges.  G.  Stephenson's,  382. 

Provisioning  of  London,  Pref.,  xix. 

Pyrenean  pastoral,  418. 

Quarterly  Review  on  railway  speed,  263. 

Queen,  the,  her  first  use  of  the  railwav,  390; 
opens  the  High-Level  and  Royal  Border 
Bridges,  437 ;  visits  the  Britannia  Bridge, 
456. 

Rails— stone  blocks  first  used,  4S ;  planks,  48 ; 
plates  of  iron,  50;  cast-iron  rails,  50 ;  flanrh- 
ed  rails,  51 ;  tram-plates  at  Merthyr,  81 ;  Wy- 
lam  wagon-way,  153  ;  rack  rail,  156, 157, 159, 
160-  heavier  cast-iron  rails  used,  160;  rough- 
ly laid,  200 ;  Stephenson's  half-lap  joint,  200 : 
Stephenson  recommends  wrought-iron  rails, 
233;  temporary  rails  in  constructing  road?, 
284  •  Vignolles's  and  Ericsson's  central  fric- 
tion, 311 ;  strained  by  high  speed,  399. 

Railway  locomotive  (see  Locomotive). 

Railway  kinsr,  the,  407, 411. 

Railway  speed  (see  Speed). 

KailwaV  speculation  and  mania.  3. 4, 401-406. 

linii\v  'iV*  len-th  of,  constructed,  Pref.,  in. ;  in 
India,  ib.,  iv. ;  in  United  States,  ib.,  vi. ;  car- 
rying stock  of,  ib.,  ix. ;  effects  of,  ib.,  xv. ;  in 
London,  ib.,  xv. ;  number  of  workmen  em- 
ployed on,  ib.,  xxviii. 

Railways  constructed  and  opened— Cardiff  and 
Merthyr,  73  :  Sirhowy,  73  :  Wandcworth, 
Crovdon,  and  Merstham,  73,  74;  \\ylam, 
160  •  Kilmarnock  and  Troon,  206 ;  Helton, 
207-  Stockton  and  Darlington,  224;  Liver- 
pool and  Manchester,  247 :  Canterbury  and 
Whitstable,  339  :  Grand  Junction,  340,  3C5 : 
Leicester  and  Swannington,  343  ;  London 


§00 


INDEX. 


and  Birmingham,  349  ;  Manchester  and 
Leeds,  366  ;  Midland,  3TO;  in  Belgium,  382  ; 
Chester  and  Birkenhead,  402;  Newcastle 
and  Darlington,  412;  Newcastle  and  Ber- 
wick, 414,  426  ;  Royal  North  of  Spain,  41T  ; 
Chester  and  Holyhead,438  ;  Trent  Valley  Rail- 
way, 469  ;  Grand  Trunk,  Lower  Canada,  476. 

Rainhill,  locomotive  contest  at,  322. 

Ramsbottom's  locomotive  self-feeding  appa- 
ratus, Pref.,  xiv. 

Rastrick,  Mr.,  C.E.,  153,  312,  315. 

Ravensworth,  Lord,  135,  192. 

Renuie,  John,  C.E.,  220,  221  ;  Messrs.  Rennie 
and  Liverpool  and  Manchester  line,  279,  281. 

Residential  area  of  London,  enlarged  hy  rail- 
ways, Pref.,  xvii. 

Richardson,  Thomas,  Lombard  Street,  230,  232, 
266,  267,  307. 

Road  locomotion  —  Stevin's  sailing-coach,  52  ; 
Mackworth's  and  Edgeworth's  sailing-wag- 
ons, 52,  53,  57  ;  Cugnot's  road  locomotive,  61  ; 
Murdock's  model,  66  ;  Symington's  steam- 
carriage,  68  ;  Oliver  Evans's  locomotive,  71, 
72  ;  Trevithick's  steam-carriage,  77  ;  G.  Ste- 
phenson's  views  of  locomotion  on  common 
roads,  202-205  ;  House  of  Commons  report 
in  favor  of,  338. 

Robins  at  Alton  Grange,  anecdote  of,  381. 

"  Rocket"  locomotive,  the,  319-328. 

Roscoe,  Mr.,  his  farm  on  Chat  Moss,  282,  283. 

Ross,  A.  M.,  joint  engineer  of  Victoria  Bridge, 
Montreal,  477. 

Royal  Border  Bridge,  Berwick,  429. 

Safety-lamp—  Dr.  Clanny's,  179  ;  George  Ste- 
phenson's first  lamp,  180  ;  second  and  third 
lamps,  186  ;  Sir  H.  Davy's  paper  on  fire-damp, 
179  ;  his  lamp,  187  ;  dates  when  lamps  pro- 
duced, 188  ;  controversy  Davy  v.  Stephenson, 
187  ;  comparative  merits  of  lamps,  195. 

Safety  of  railway  traveling,  Pref.,  x. 

Sailing-coaches  and  wagons,  52,  53,  57. 


,     ,     . 

Saint  Fond  on  colliery  wagon  roads,  49. 
aint  Law 
476-484. 


Saint  Lawrence  Rive 


y  wago 
r,  Victor 


ia  Bridge  across, 


Sandars,  Mr.,  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Rail- 

way, 248,  253,  254,  255,  262,  263,  297,  313. 
Sankey  Viaduct,  292,293. 
"Sanspareil"  locomotive,  Hackworth's,   324, 

325. 

Scarborough,  railway  to,  374. 
Screw-propeller  patented  by  Trevithick,  86. 
Seguin,  M.,  his  tubular  boiler,  317,  318. 
Self-feeding  apparatus  of  boilers,  Pref.,  xiv. 
Sheep  carried  to  London  by  rail,  Pref.,  xxi. 
Sibthorp,  Col.,  on  railways,  341,  390,  391. 
Signaling  of  railway  trains,  Pref.,  xi. 
Simplon,  Midland  Railway  compared  with  road 

over  the,  371. 
Sirhowy  Railroad,  73. 
Suibston,  George  Stephenson's  sinking  for  coal 

at,  344. 

Sopwith,  Mr.,  F.R.S.,  416,  467. 
South  Devon  atmospheric  railway,  428. 
Spain,  George  Stephenson's  visit  to,  418. 
Spankie,  Mr.  Sergeant,  counsel  for  Liverpool 

and  Manchester  Railway  Bill,  271. 
Speculation  in  railways,  374,  401  ;  G.  Stephen- 

son  on,  406,  407  ;  R.  Stephenson  and,  425. 
Speed,  railway,  Pref.,  viii.  ;  on  Liverpool  and 

Manchester  line,  332;   George  Stephenson 

on,  398,  399. 

Spur-gear,  George  Stephenson's,  164,  165. 
Stage-coach  traveling,  Pref.,  vii.,  337,  387,  389. 
Statues  of  George  Stephenson,  472. 
Steam-blast,  invention  of  the,  168,  170  ;  rival 

claims,  170,  171  ;  of  the  "  Rocket,"  320. 
Steam-boat,  the  first  working,  70. 
Stephenson  family,  the—  Robert  and  Mabel, 


George's  father  and  mother,  103-105 ;  broth- 
^ers  and  sisters,  111,  112 ;  old  Robert,  123 ; 
maintained  by  his  son  George,  129. 

Stephenson,  George,  birth  and  birthplace,  103, 
104 ;  his  parents,  105 ;  boyhood,  107-110 ;  fire- 
man and  engine-man,  109-113;  learns  to  read, 
114 ;  learns  to  brake,  116,  117 ;  makes  and 
mends  shoes  and  "falls  in  love,"  118 ;  thrash- 
es a  bully,  119,  120 ;  self-improvement,  121 ; 
removes  to  Willingt9n,  122  ;  marries  Fanny 
Henderson, 123 ;  studies  mechanics,  perpetual 
motion,  124;  clean  8  clocks,  125;  birth  of  only 
son  and  removal  to  Killingworth,  126 ;  death 
of  his  wife,  127 ;  goes  to  Scotland,  his  pump 
boot,  128;  returns  to  Killingworth,  ibid.; 
brakesman  at  West  Moor  pit,  129 ;  joins  in  a 
brakeing  contract,  130, 131 ;  cures  a  pumping- 
engine,  132-134 ;  appointed  engine -wright, 
135 ;  education  of  his  son,  139-141 ;  his  cot- 
tage at  West  Moor,  146 ;  the  sun-dial,  148, 
149 ;  studies  the  locomotive,  151, 161-163 ;  his 
first  traveling-engine,  163-170;  invents  his 
safety-lamp,  179-186  :  improves  underground 
machinery  at  Killingworth,  198 ;  patent  for 
improved  rails  and  chairs,  200,  201 ;  experi- 
ments on  friction,  202 ;  constructs  Hetton 
Railroad,  208 ;  marriesElizabeth  Hindmarsh, 
214;  appointed  engineer  of  the  Stockton  and 
Darlington  Railway,  228,  229 ;  commences  lo- 
comotive factory  at  Newcastle,  232 ;  supplies 
locomotives  to  Stockton  and  Darlington  Rail- 
way, 235 ;  appointed  engineer  to  Liverpool 
and  Manchester  Railway,  254 ;  obstructions 
to  the  survey,  259,  260 ;  his  evidence  in  com- 
mittee, 266  ;  bill  rejected,  277  ;  reappointed 
engineer,  281 ;  construction  of  Liverpool  and 
Manchester  Railway,  282-295 ;  battle  of  the 
locomotive,  310-315 ;  triumph  of  the  "Rock- 
et" at  Rainhill,  319-328 ;  organization  of  the 
railway  traffic,  333 ;  improvements  of  the  lo- 
comotive, 335;  the  self-acting  brake,  334, 398 ; 
leases  the  Snibston  estate,  344 ;  engineer  of 
Manchester  and  Leeds  Railway,  366;  engi- 
neer of  North  Midland,  371  ;  of  York  and 
North  Midland,  373 ;  quickness  of  observa- 
tion, 375;  proposed  line  across  Morecambe 
Bay,  376;  immense  labors,  377;  extensive 
correspondence,  379, 380 ;  London  office,  381 ; 
visits  to  Belgium,  382,  383 ;  leases  Claycross 
estate  and  colliery,  394 ;  on  railway  specula- 
tion, 406,  407 ;  third  visit  to  Belgium,  415 ; 
visit  to  Spain,  417 ;  interview  with  Lord  How- 
ick,  428, 429 ;  life  in  retirement  at  Tapton,  460 ; 
visit  to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  467 ;  theory  about 
sun's  light,  468 ;  illness  and  death,  470 ;  stat- 
nea  of,  472  ;  characteristics,  487-492. 

Stephenson,  Robert,  his  birth,  126 ;  boyhood 
and  education,  140-143 ;  boyish  tricks,  143, 
144 ;  scientific  amusements,  145 ;  teaches  al- 
gebra, 148 ;  joint  production  with  his  father 
of  a  sun-dial,  148,  149  ;  assists  his  father  in 
safety-lamp  experiments,  181, 184 ;  Newcastle 
Institute,  209 ;  apprenticed  as  coal-viewer, 
209 ;  coal-pit  explosion,  narrow  escape,  joint 
studies  with  his  father,  210 ;  sent  to  Edin- 
burg University,  211 ;  his  notes  of  lectures, 
212;  life  in  Edinburg,  213 ;  geological  excur- 
sion in  the  Highlands,  return  to  Killing- 
worth,  213,  214  ;  assists  Mr.  James  in  survey 
of  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway,  252  ; 
makes  drawings  for  engines,  301 ;  engages 
with  Colombian  Mining  Association,  and 
residence  in  South  America,  301-306 ;  resigns 
his  situation,  306 ;  meeting  with  Trevithick 
at  Cartagena,  308 ;  shipwreck,  308 ;  tour  in 
the  United  States,  and  return  home,  309 ;  co- 
operates with  his  father  in  the  locomotive 
competition,  315;  builds  the  "  Rocket,"  319  ; 
engineer  of  Leicester  and  Swannington  Rail- 


INDEX. 


501 


way,  343  ;  engineer  of  London  and  Binnino-- 
ham  Railway,  349 ;  marriage  to  Miss  Sander- 
son, 353  ;  report  on  atmospheric  system,  404 ; 
succeeds  his  father  generally  as  engineer, 
421 ;  his  extensive  practice,  422,  423 ;  his  cau- 
tion, 425,  448,  456 ;  engineer  of  High-Level 
Bridge,  Newcastle,  431 ;  engineer  of  Chester 
and  Holyhead  Railway,  438 ;  designs  the  first 
iron  tubular  bridge,  444 ;  opens  the  Britan- 
nia Bridge,  45T ;  designs  tubular  bridges  over 
the  Nile,  475 ;  designs  the  Victoria  Tubular 
Bridge,  Lower  Canada,  477;  member  of 
House  of  Commons,  484 ;  honors,  485 ;  pres- 
ent at  launch  of  "Great  Eastern,"  486 ;  ill- 
ness and  death,  487 ;  characteristics,  492-494. 

Stevin's  sailing-coach,  52. 

Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway  projected 
and  surveyed,  222 ;  Edward  Pease,  promoter, 
222 ;  act  obtained,  224 ;  George  Stephenson 
resurveys  and  constructs  line,  228,  229 ;  line 
opened,  236;  coal-traffic,  239 ;  first  passenger- 
traffic,  240,  241 ;  growth  of  Middlesborough, 

Straits  of  Menai.  bridge  'over,  441. 

Strathmore,  Earl  of,  135, 192. 

Suez  Canal,  Robert  Stephenson's  opinion  of, 
484,485. 

Summers  and  Ogle's  tubular  boiler,  317. 

Sun-dial  at  Killingworth,  148, 149, 396. 

Sun's  light  and  coal  formation,  G.  Stephenson's 
ideas  on,  468, 491. 

Sunshine,  effect  of,  on  tubes  of  Britannia 
Bridge,  458. 

Superheated  steam,  Trevithick's  use  of,  91. 

Swanwick,  Frederick,  G.  Stephenson's  secre- 
tary-, 297,  299,  315. 

Sylvester,  Mr.,  on  maximum  speed,  264. 

Symington,  William,  his  working  model  of  a 
road  locomotive,  6S ;  co-operation  with  Mil- 
ler of  Dalswinton  in  applying  power  to  boats, 
70 ;  his  misfortunes  and  death,  70. 

Tapton  House,  George  Stephenson's  residence 
at,  392,  395, 460. 

Telegraph  signaling  on  railways,  -Pref.,  xiiL 

Thames  Tunnel  begun  by  Trevithick,  85,  86. 

Thirlwall,  William,  engineer,  108. 

Thomas,  Mr.,  of  Denton,  on  railways,  73. 

Traffic,  passenger,  beginnings  of,  Pref.,  vi, 
xv.,  240,  241,  333,  385,  388  ;  cattle,  Pref.,  xx. ; 
coal,  ib.,  xxv.,  153,  161,  386,  392 ;  food,  Pref., 
xix. ;  merchandise,  ib.,  xxvi. ;  poultry,  etc., 
ib.,  xxii. ;  postal,  ib.,  xxvi. 

Train  service  of  London,  Pre/.,xvii. 

Tram-ways,  early,  48, 49, 73, 106, 152. 

Trevithick,  Richard,  birth  and  education,  74 ; 
engineering  ability  in  youth,  75;  partner 
with  Andrew  Vivian  at  Camborne,  76;  his 
improved  engine  and  boiler,  77;  his  steam- 
carriage  for  roads,  77-79 ;  carriage  exhibited 
in  London,  79,  80 ;  constructs  the  first  rail- 
way locomotive,  80 ;  dredges  the  Thames  by 
steam-power,  S3 ;  his  high-pressure  engines 
and  new  patents,  83,  84  ;  partly  constructs  a 
Thames  tunnel,  85,  86 ;  returns  to  Camborne, 
new  patents,  86  ;  his  tubular  boiler,  engines 
for  Peru,  86, 87 ;  goes  to  Lima,  received  with 
honors,  88 ;  civil  war  and  ruin,  89 ;  meets 


Robert  Stephensou  at  Cartagena,  90 ;  ship- 
wreck and  return  to  England,  91 ;  new  In- 
ventions, his  last  days  and  death  in  povertv 
92,  93 ;  his  character,  his  important  inven- 
tions,  ibid. ;  his  locomotive,  152, 153, 170, 317. 

Tring  Cutting,  354. 

Trinity  Church,  Chesterfield,  G  Stephenson'e 
burial-place,  471. 

"  Tubbing"  in  coal-plte,  344. 

Tubes,  floating  of,  at  Conway,  451,  452  •  at 
Menai  Strait,  452;  lifting  of  the,  455;  erec- 
tion of.  at  Victoria  Bridge,  Montreal,  4-SO. 

Tubular  boilers  by  various  inventors,  317. 


;  atK.ilsby,357;  at  Littleborough,  368. 
jr,  Rev.  William,  Newcastle,  185. 


-  -  -« inters,! 

Tubular  bridges-over  Menai  Straits,  443 ;  at 
Conway^  451,  452;  at  Damietta  and  Benha, 
Lower  Egypt,  475 ;  at  Montreal,  480. 
Tunnels-at  tiverpool,  290 ;  at.Primrose  Hill, 

Turner, 

Undulating  Railways,  theory  of,  400. 
United  States,  railways  in,  Pref.,  v» 
Uville,  M.,  and  Trevithick,  87-69. 

Vegetables  carried  to  London  by  rail,  Pref., 

xxiii. 
Viaducts— Sankey,  292 ;  Dntton,  366 :  Berwick, 

430 ;  Newcastle,  431. 
Victoria  Bridge,  Montreal,  477. 
Vignolles,  Charles,  C.E.,  279,  291, 311. 
Vivian,  Andrew,  Trevithick's  partner,  76. 

Walker,  James,  C.E.,  report  on  fixed  and  loco- 
motive engines,  312. 

Wallsend,97. 

Walmsley,  Sir  Joshua,  418, 419. 

Waters,  Mr.,  Gateshead,  158. 

Watt,  James,  his  model  locomotive,  60;  his 
scheme  of  1784,  64,  65 ;  discourages  applica- 
tion of  steam  to  locomotion,  67. 

"  Way-leave"  tram-ways,  49. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  and  railways,  330-332, 

West' Moor  Colliery,  177, 214. 

Wharncliffe,  Lord,  and  George  Stephensou, 
135, 367. 

Wheat  carried  to  London  by  rail,  Pref.,  xx. 

Whinfield,  Mr.,  Gateshead,  154. 

Wigham,  John,  G.  Stephenson's  teacher,  138. 

Williams,  Mr.  Scorrier,  his  gratitude  to  Trev- 
ithick, 77. 

Willington  Quay,  G.  Stephenson  at,  122. 

Wind,  power  of,  employed  in  locomotion,  52, 

Wood,  Nicholas,  testimony  concerning  Ste- 
phenson's invention  of  the  steam-blast,  171- 
173 ;  makes  drawing  for  Stephenson's  safety- 
lamp,  180 ;  assists  in  experiments,  180,  185, 
189, 196, 198 ;  in  colliery  explosions,  210 ;  on 
the  locomotive,  262, 314, 315. 

Woolf,  Cornish  engineer,  84,  317. 

Workmen,  railway,  Pref.,  xxviil.,  336,  362. 

Wylam  Colliery  and  village,  102-104;  wagon- 
way,  153. 

York  and  North  Midland  Railway,  373,  374 ; 

public  opening  of,  384. 
Young,  Arthur,  on  early  tram-ways,  49. 


THE  END. 


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